Quite often, when performing a particular morphological analysis, it is necessary to indicate the case of the word being analyzed. The case is one of the most difficult categories that exists today in the Russian language, but you need to know it in order to learn to understand the most difficult issues and perform the analysis competently.
Cases in Russian
The inflectional category of the case usually indicates the relation of the noun or adjective to other words in the sentence or phrase that it forms together with these words. At the moment in the Russian language there are only 6 cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental and prepositional.
Earlier in the Russian language there were much more cases, which over time were abolished, as well as the dual number. Echoes of these phenomena in the Russian language can still be observed, some words were formed from the forms of the vocative case of nouns and adjectives.
Nominative and all-all-all
The noun in the nominative case is opposed to all the others, because it has an independent grammatical position in the language, sometimes it is called the direct case. The remaining 6 cases are indirect, they are constantly dependent on other words and can express different syntactic relations to other word forms.
Definition of cases is carried out on issues. Answering the question “Who? What? “what case?”, you can immediately say that this is a genitive case, because it is he who answers these questions. Each case has its own questions, which are convenient to use to determine the position of a word in speech.
How are cases expressed?
You can determine the case not only by questions, but also by endings. Some cases have almost fixed endings, which depend on the gender, number and declension (for the noun). So, for words in the feminine, singular, nominative case 1 declensions will be relevant endings "a", "I".
If you are faced with homonymy, you can try to determine the case in a syntactic way (using coordinated words and prepositions or in the order of words in a sentence). Other methods are also used, for example, the substitution technique is often used when the noun “fox” or “Masha” is substituted for the existing word. Both cases are also recommended for identifying cases.
Cases and their questions
Each case has certain questions. The nominative case answers the questions “who?” what? ", genitive -" whom? what? ", dative -" to whom? what? ”, accusative -“ whom? what? ”, instructive -“ by whom? what? ", prepositional -" about whom? about what?". These questions can be used to determine the cases of nouns and adjectives.
Some cases also have additional prepositions, with the help of which you can determine what place the word takes in the sentence, and how exactly it should be disassembled. To determine the cases, you can substitute additional constructions before the defined word, for example, for the genitive case - “no” (who has no what?), For the dative - “give”, accusative - “blame”, instrumental - “create”, prepositional - “ I say. "
Forms of cases in Russian
The lexical meaning of cases is compiled on the basis of the role they play in the sentence. If the case form is able to exist only with one word, it is called the word. If the case form applies immediately to the whole sentence, it is called determinant.
The determinant form is usually at the beginning of a sentence, it is not included in phrases, and sets the tone for the whole sentence. The question to her should be asked either from the basis of the whole utterance, or from the whole sentence at once. It is easy enough to see it in a sentence, usually neither schoolchildren nor students have problems with this.
Common lexical meanings of cases
The meanings of cases can be private and general, their separation from the sentence plays a huge role for the syntax, with its help it is possible in the future to analyze existing sentences and determine their grammatical structure. Answering the question “Who? What? - what case? ”, It is important to remember two possible meanings.
The objective meaning of the case means how the subject relates to the action that is directed at him. With the subjective meaning of the case, the action is performed by the object itself, which expresses the attitude towards it. The relationship between several items can express a definitive meaning. Using circumstantial significance, it is possible to determine the characteristics of the state of the subject from the point of view of circumstantial relations. Outside this category is an informative and replenishing meaning, which may require both words in combination to have the same case forms.
Private meanings: nominative
In addition to the basic meanings, cases can also have particulars, which can be clarified only by possessing information at the university level. At school, students are asked to determine the case only in its general meaning, sometimes because of this there are errors that even the teacher himself, who had long forgotten the university program, cannot solve.
The nominative case is capable of possessing a central, objective, predicative, appositive, definitive, informative, replenishing, and ad hoc value. There is also a nominative representation where the word in this case forms the theme for further continuation of the story.
Particular meanings of indirect cases: genitive
Hearing the question “Who? What? - what case? ”, few doubt that it is genitive. The particular meaning of the genitive case is subdivided into the adjective and verbal, the semantics in this case are quite clear, the first is characteristic in the combination of R. n. With a name, and the second - with a verb.
The genitive adoptive has the private value of belonging, attitude, whole, quality assessment, bearer of a sign, an object. There is also an additional meaning of the subject of a state or action, and the presence of an informative-filling meaning in the form of a partitive kind.
The genitive verb also answers the questions “who?” why? ”, what case is there, determining is not difficult. It has the meaning of a direct object when indicating substance or negation, as well as the value of expectation (with the corresponding verbs: ask, desire, seek, etc.).
Private values of indirect cases: dative
The dative case has verbal and adopted particular meanings. In the first case, we are talking about the meaning of a third-party object to which a certain action is indicated, indicated by the verb. Also, the verbal dative may have subjective meaning in impersonal sentences when it refers to a person experiencing a condition or performing an action.
Dative pronoun is rarely used in modern Russian and, in fact, repeats the lexical meaning of the dative case of the adjective. In some cases, it is able to have a definitive value, with a touch of purpose: food for fish.
Private values of indirect cases: accusative
The accusative adopted in modern Russian is almost never found, therefore, the main verb is used, meaning the expression of the object next to the transitional verbs, or the meaning of measure, space, time.
Particular values of indirect cases: instrumental
The instrumental case most often has the verbal meaning of the instrument of action, subjective, content, and circumstantial meaning. In one way or another, they all indicate the completion of an action. Informative-complementary and instructive-predicative meanings are quite close to each other and are used with the verbs “reckon, be, seem”, etc. Proper pronoun is a rarity in the language, it usually repeats verbal meanings.
Particular values of indirect cases: prepositional
The prepositional case mainly has verbal object and circumstantial meanings that are associated either with the state, feelings, thoughts or speech, as well as with the places next to which the action will take place.
Prepositional pronoun is rarely used and has a similar verb meaning. Most often it is used for the values of the attribute of an object, quality, property and is definitive.
Conclusion
Cases and their questions can help determine not only the form of the word, but also its position within the sentence, which plays an important role in morphological and syntactic analysis. If necessary, you can consult reference literature, which will tell you which case a particular word belongs to.