The category of case in compared languages

3. The Category of Case in compared languages

Case is the form of the noun built up the means of inflexion which indicates the relations of the noun to the other words in the sentence. In the earlier stages English had a more developed system of cases by means of which various functions of the noun and a pronoun were marked. In old English there were: the Nominative, the Genitive, the Dative, the Accusative case forms. In the course of time the original Nominative, Dative, Accusative merged into one- infected form. The old Genitive case is presented in Modern English by the inflected Possessive case. We see that Modern English nouns denoting living- beings and some nouns denoting lifeless- thing have two case: an uninflected form- called Common case. Case system of Azerbaijani nouns differ from those of English in number and usage. In Modern Azerbaijani nouns have six case forms: the Nominative, the Genitive, the Dative, the Accusative, the Locative, the Ablative case forms.   English case systems cover only the nouns and some lifeless things and the pronoun. Azerbaijani case system had a wide usage than English. Its case system covers the noun, the adjective, the numeral, the pronoun, the infinitive, the participle. Except, the noun, the pronoun, the infinitive, the rest above shown can have case inflexion. The English Common case like Azerbaijani Nominative case is characterized by zero inflexion. When a noun in the Common case preceded the verb it is the subject. When a noun follows the predicate verb it is a direct object. Ex.: The students read the text well. Placed after a link- verb it is a predicative.  Ex.: It is an interesting book. You may read it. Placed between a transitive verb and its object it’s an indirect object. Preceded by the preposition to the noun may be: a) a prepositional indirect object. Ex.: He gave a book to Peter. b) an adverbial modifier of place. Ex.: Every Sunday he goes to the park. When a noun is used in the Common case with “by”  it’s a prepositional object indicating the agent of the action expressed by possessive predicate- verb. Ex.: The way to outer space was opened by him. With “of” it may be an attribute. Ex.: At last they reached the station of the railway.           Thus, English nouns in the Common case can have the following functions: of the subject, the predicate, the object, the attribute and the adverbial modifier. The function of the Nominative case of Azerbaijani nouns is the subject. A noun in the Nominative case can be the subject of the sentence expressed by verb- predicate or Compound Nominal Predicate. The noun in the Nominative case has also the syntactical function of an attribute in the compared languages. Ex.: The silver spoon is on the table. When a noun is the indefinite Accusative it coincides with the Nominative case, but the function is the direct object. Ex.: Kitab bilik mənbəyidir. Here “kitab” is in the Nominative case and is the subject. But in the sentence, for example, “Əli kitab oxuyur” – “kitab” coincides with the Nominative case as “Əli” and has the function of the direct object.

Possessive case represents the Old Genitive case. It is much narrower in its meaning, use and function. In Old English the Genitive case had a very wide- range of meaning and function and it was freely used with old nouns denoting living- being as well as lifeless things. In Modern English the use of Possessive case is restricted to nouns denoting living beings and its syntactical function is exclusively than of attribute. Ex.: Jack’s brother. With nouns denoting inanimate thing and absract nouns the Possessive case relation is conveyed by “of” – phrase, ex.: The colour of wall. The “of” – phrase may be used with nouns denoting living- being, ex.: The father of Jack. Different from English nouns denoting living- being and lifeless thing nouns in Azerbaijani can have Posssessive case. Posssessive case in English is formed by the “-s”, the Genitive case in Azerbaijani is formed by “ın” for the nouns ending in a consonant. As we know, the suffixes of the Genitive case are added to the stem of the noun, as in English the noun. The noun in the Possessive case precedes the noun modifies, but in Azerbaijani it follows the noun. A noun in the Possessive case in English have the function of an attribute which rarely happens in Azerbaijani.

That the noun in the Genitive case in Azerbaijani with the word it modifier forms a complex part of the sentence. In some case a noun in the Possessive case in Azerbaijani can serve as an inner attribute to the word it precedes.