The Case of Nouns
Lecture 7
According to the Limited Case Theory,
developed by O. Jespersen, English
nouns have two case forms – genitive
case and common case.
 We adopt this theory because it is based on the
Structural approach to language description
and complies with the principle that
 each grammatical form has its own
grammatical meaning and
 each grammatical meaning is realized
through a specific grammatical form.
Defining the Category
 Case is a grammatical category expressing various
relations of the noun to other elements in the
sentence structure or in the structure of the phrase.
 The languages in the world are classified into
synthetical, preserving the inflectional case system,
and
 analytical, expressing these relationships by
prepositions, relative pronouns and word order.
 Both English and Bulgarian are analytical languages.
The category of case is based on the
functional opposition of two sets of forms:
common ↔ genitive.
 The common case form is unmarked.
 It expresses relations between the noun and the
verb in syntactic structures of various statuses.
 Each specific relation is further distinguished by
means of word order:
Tom bought a present
S
Od
for Nelly last week
Oprep
The genitive case form is marked by
the –‘s grammatical ending.
 This ending is attached
 to nouns in the singular form (the teacher’s
pencil),
 to irregular plural forms (the children’s pencil),
 to larger syntactic structures (Jack and Jill’s
adventure).
 The apostrophe is attached to regular plural
nouns (the students’ papers).
Proper nouns in –s can be marked
in two ways:
 either ‘s or apostrophe
 Example: Burns’s poems or Burns’ poems
 but the ending should be pronounced [iz] in
both cases
The genitive case forms express relations
between two nouns:
Jane’s brother; my sister’s house.
 The inflected genitive is common with
animate nouns:
 - personal names – Dr. Brown’s students
 - personal nouns – my father’s watch
 - collective improper nouns – the party’s
political platform
 - higher animals – the lion’s cage
The inflected genitive is also used with
some inanimate nouns:
 - geographical names – Bulgaria’s past
 - names of institutions – the Chamber of
Trade and Industry’s Premises
 - temporal nouns – a two months’ holiday
 - nouns of distance – a three miles’ walk
 - in some set phrases – at a stone’s throw;
within arm’s reach
 The forms of the genitive play basically the
role of an attribute.
 The attributive relation is a phenomenon of
the surface structure.
 However, there are different semantic
nuances of the genitive case
Structural Types of Genitive Phrase
 According to the structure of the noun phrase
in which the genitive case form is included,
we can distinguish the following types of
phrase:
 the regular genitive phrase – the noun in the
genitive case precedes the head noun
the Queen’s English
 the group genitive phrase – the case
marking refers to a group of nouns or a
noun phrase – the United States’ policy
 If it is a group of nouns, the marker is added
to the last one – Mary and Paul’s home
 It shows certain independence of the marker
which can be likened to that of the article.
 the double genitive phrase – the relation
between the two nouns is marked twice –
1. by means of case ending and
2. the preposition of
a friend of my brother’s
(one of my brother’s friends)
 It is used whenever another determiner
besides the genitive is needed:
a friend of Tom’s, an old song of Greene's,
a book of John's
 the elliptic genitive phrase – the head noun is
omitted if the context makes it possible for the
addressee to recover the relation
Ann’s office is larger than Tom’s
My car is faster than John's (=John 's car)
 The genitive here is an elliptical variant of the
noun phrase.
 the elliptic genitive is also called independent
 the local genitive phrase – this is a
variety of the elliptic type
 The omitted noun refers to buildings or
establishments.
at St. Paul’s (Cathedral);
at the newsagent’s
Semantic Types of Genitive Phrase
 Two semantic types of genitive phrase
can be distinguished: specifying and
descriptive.
Specifying Genitive
 Within this semantic type the noun in
the genitive case form is used with
specific reference: my neighbour’s son
 The relations between the noun in the
genitive case form and the head-noun
are various.
Accordingly, grammarians distinguish
between the following semantic varieties:
a. possessive Genitive – this man’s car
(=this man has a car)
 The noun in the genitive case denotes
the owner; the head-noun denotes the
possession.
 The feature /+animate/ is of basic importance.
 In the majority of cases the head noun has
the feature /-human/.
b. subject Genitive
my friend’s visit (=My friend visited us.)
Tom’s arrival (=Tom arrived.)

The noun in the genitive case denotes the agent; the
head-noun denotes the action.
 Requirements:
1. the head-noun must share the same root as the
respective verb;
2. the noun in the genitive must have the feature
/+animate/ in its semantic component.
c. object Genitive
Tom’s trial (=They tried Tom.)
Brown’s murder (=They murdered Brown)
 The head noun of the phrase becomes a
predicate of the underlying sentence;
 The noun in the genitive case
object of the
underlying sentence;
 The noun in the genitive case denotes the
affected; the head-noun denotes the action.
d. Genitive of origin
R. Stevenson’s essays
 The noun in the genitive case denotes the
agent; the head-noun denotes the product.
 The specifying genitive may be replaced by a
prepositional phrase introduced by the
preposition of:
my friend’s visit (=the visit of my friend)
Prepositional phrases may
express several more meanings:
a. appositive Genitive – the city of London
 the important word is London and it is city
that qualifies it
b. partitive Genitive – the leg of the chair
c. Genitive of measure – the length of the
swimming pool
Descriptive Genitive
 With this semantic type the noun in the
genitive case is used with generic
reference.

We can distinguish between two semantic varieties:
a. classifying Genitive
b. Genitive of measure
a. classifying Genitive
 a sailor’s uniform (=uniform worn by
sailors)
 cow’s milk (=milk from cows)
 a doctor’s degree (=a doctoral degree )
 The boys’ own paper (=a British
magazine for boys)
b. Genitive of measure
 an hour’s break (=a break of one hour)
 a mile’s walk (=walking a distance of one
mile)
 The descriptive genitive is not always
possible to be replaced by an of-phrase.
 Many descriptive genitive phrases have
become set phrases:
a spider’s web, a bee’s sting
 Some phrases have idiomatic meaning:
a giant’s task, a child’s play
The uses of the ‘s (inflected) genitive and
the of- (periphrastic) genitive overlap to a
considerable degree.
 But the two structures are not always
interchangeable.
 The inflected form is common in headlines,
captions and titles. This is due to its brevity and
the prominence it gives to the noun:
‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’, ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’