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Genitive case

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In grammar , the genitive case ( abbreviated gen ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun , as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can also serve purposes indicating other relationships. For example, some verbs may feature arguments in the genitive case; and the genitive case may also have adverbial uses (see adverbial genitive ).

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44-459: The genitive construction includes the genitive case, but is a broader category. Placing a modifying noun in the genitive case is one way of indicating that it is related to a head noun , in a genitive construction. However, there are other ways to indicate a genitive construction. For example, many Afroasiatic languages place the head noun (rather than the modifying noun) in the construct state . Possessive grammatical constructions, including

88-458: A conventional genitive case. That is, Modern English indicates a genitive construction with either the possessive clitic suffix " - 's ", or a prepositional genitive construction such as "x of y". However, some irregular English pronouns do have possessive forms which may more commonly be described as genitive (see English possessive ). The names of the astronomical constellations have genitive forms which are used in star names, for example

132-440: A genitive construction or genitival construction is a type of grammatical construction used to express a relation between two nouns such as the possession of one by another (e.g. "John's jacket"), or some other type of connection (e.g. "John's father" or "the father of John"). A genitive construction involves two nouns, the head (or modified noun ) and the dependent (or modifier noun ). In dependent-marking languages,

176-416: A dependent genitive noun modifies the head by expressing some property of it. For example, in the construction "John's jacket", "jacket" is the head and "John's" is the modifier, expressing a property of the jacket (it is owned by John). The analogous relationship in head-marking languages is pertensive . Arabs and Iranians call the head or modified noun in genitive construction "مضاف /muzaf/" and

220-676: A familiar relation such as "father", and the equivalent of the Hungarian example would become ungrammatical: * vinduet dets hus (lit. "window-the its house"). In the Pirahã language spoken in the Amazonas region of Brazil, pronouns do not inflect for possession, and they are used in a way similar to English -s: paitá Paita hi (s)he kaiíi house paitá hi kaiíi Paita (s)he house "Paita's house" ti I kahaí arrow ti kahaí I arrow "my arrow" NOTE : In this context, this

264-453: A grammatical case, although they are sometimes referred to as genitives or as belonging to a possessive case . One of the reasons that the status of ' s as a case ending is often rejected is that it does not behave as such, but rather as a clitic marking that indicates that a dependency relationship exists between phrases. One can say the King's war , but also the King of France's war , where

308-467: A ház ablak a "the house's window", literally "the house window-its". A similar, although more dated, form may occur in Norwegian as well, where the above example may be expressed as huset hennes Hilde (lit. "house-the her Hilde", with the non-reflexive possessive pronoun and reversed word order) with the same meaning as before. However, that variant is restricted to where the possessor is a personal name or

352-510: A manner of good fortune’ (which also hints at the possessive role of the case). The conjunction falls ('if') is the genitive of Fall 'case'. Likewise for keinesfalls / keineswegs ('by no means of'), andernfalls ('otherwise' i.e. ‘another way of’). The preposition angesichts ('in view of') is the genitive of Angesicht ('face'). The time expressions morgens , mittags , abends , nachts , eines Tages (one day) and eines Nachts (one night; analogized with eines Tages , though Nacht

396-787: A synchronic mutation of a final m into n in Finnish, e.g. genitive sydämen vs. nominative sydän .) This homophony has exceptions in Finnish , where a separate accusative -(e)t is found in pronouns, e.g. kenet "who (telic object)", vs. kenen "whose". A difference is also observed in some of the related Sámi languages , where the pronouns and the plural of nouns in the genitive and accusative are easily distinguishable from each other, e.g., kuä'cǩǩmi "eagles' (genitive plural)" and kuä'cǩǩmid "eagles (accusative plural)" in Skolt Sami . The genitive singular definite article for masculine and neuter nouns

440-439: Is des , while the feminine and plural definite article is der . The indefinite articles are eines for masculine and neuter nouns, and einer for feminine and plural nouns (although the bare form cannot be used in the plural, it manifests in keiner , meiner , etc.) Singular masculine and neuter nouns of the strong declension in the genitive case are marked with -(e)s . Generally, one-syllable nouns favour

484-480: Is not the same as a possessive determiner such as "my" or "his". In Russian , for example, most nouns have a corresponding adjective that is declined as a normal adjective (agreeing with its head noun) but has the meaning of a genitival modifier. For example, in place of a normal construction using a noun in the genitive case: детство childhood( NEUT ). NOM Иван-а Ivan- GEN детство Иван-а childhood(NEUT).NOM Ivan-GEN "Ivan's childhood" It

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528-426: Is a noun declined in the genitive case that functions as an adverb . In Old and Middle English , the genitive case was productive , and adverbial genitives were commonplace. While Modern English does not fully retain the genitive case, it has left various relics, including a number of adverbial genitives. Some of them are now analyzed as ordinary adverbs, including the following: Some words were formed from

572-413: Is also possible to use a possessive adjective, which agrees with the head in number, gender and case: Иван-ов-о Ivan- POS . ADJ - NEUT . NOM детство childhood( NEUT ). NOM Иван-ов-о детство Ivan-POS.ADJ-NEUT.NOM childhood(NEUT).NOM "Ivan's childhood" Latin also had possessive adjectives of this sort. Sometimes these are called relational adjectives (although that term

616-627: Is also used for a slightly different type of adjective in Russian). Suffixaufnahme is used in some languages, and is conceptually similar to the use of possessive adjectives. Basically, a modifying noun is marked in the genitive case, but also agrees in case, number and gender with the head—essentially, it has two case markings. This occurs in some modern languages (e.g. Dyirbal ), and also in Old Georgian : perx-ni foot- NOM . PL Adverbial genitive In grammar , an adverbial genitive

660-416: Is as follows: The genitive personal pronouns are quite rare and either very formal, literary or outdated. They are as follows (with comparison to the nominative pronouns): Some examples: Unlike the personal ones, the genitive relative pronouns are in regular use and are as follows (with comparison to the nominative relative pronouns): Some examples: The genitive case is often used to show possession or

704-434: Is clear from the rephrasing "I work during the day and sleep at night.") The modern British expression "Of an afternoon I go for a walk" has a similar origin, but uses the periphrasis "of + noun " to replace the original genitive. This periphrastic form has variously been marked as used "particularly in isolated and mountainous regions of the southern United States" and as having "a distinctly literary feel". German uses

748-402: Is homophonic to the genitive case. This case does not indicate possession, but is a syntactic marker for the object, additionally indicating that the action is telic (completed). In Estonian , it is often said that only a "genitive" exists. However, the cases have completely different functions, and the form of the accusative has developed from * -(e)m . (The same sound change has developed into

792-431: Is left in the nominative case. For example: If the possessor is not the predicate of the sentence, the genitive is not used. Instead, the possessive suffixes ( -(j)e or -(j)a in the third person singular, depending on vowel harmony ) mark the possessed object. The possessor is left in the nominative if it directly precedes the possessed object (otherwise it takes a dative -nak/-nek suffix). For example: In addition,

836-399: The -es ending, and it is obligatory with nouns ending with a sibilant such as s or z . Otherwise, a simple -s ending is usual. Feminine and plural nouns remain uninflected: Singular masculine nouns (and one neuter noun) of the weak declension are marked with an -(e)n (or rarely -(e)ns ) ending in the genitive case: The declension of adjectives in the genitive case

880-543: The Kansai dialect of Japanese will in rare cases allow accusative case to convert to genitive, if specific conditions are met in the clause in which the conversion appears. This is referred to as "Accusative-Genitive conversion." The genitive is one of the cases of nouns and pronouns in Latin . Latin genitives still have certain modern scientific uses: The Irish language also uses a genitive case ( tuiseal ginideach ). For example, in

924-619: The Turkic languages . Depending on the language, specific varieties of genitive-noun–main-noun relationships may include: Depending on the language, some of the relationships mentioned above have their own distinct cases different from the genitive. Possessive pronouns are distinct pronouns, found in Indo-European languages such as English, that function like pronouns inflected in the genitive. They are considered separate pronouns if contrasting to languages where pronouns are regularly inflected in

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968-408: The picture is owned by John, but does not necessarily feature John. By comparison, "this is a picture of John" indicates that the picture features John, and "this is John's picture" ambiguously indicates that either John owns the picture or that the picture features John. However, this construction is also considered to be either informal or not part of Standard English . The distinction between

1012-401: The adverbial genitive along with an additional parasitic -t : The adverbial genitive also survives in a number of stock phrases; for example, in "I work days and sleep nights", the words days and nights are analyzed as plural nouns but are in fact derived historically from the genitive or instrumental cases of day and night . (That they function as adverbs rather than as direct objects

1056-541: The dependent or modifier noun in genitive construction "مضاف‌الیه /muzafun-ilayh/". Genitive constructions can be expressed in various ways: This is common in languages with grammatical case , e.g. Latin . For example, " Cicero 's father" is expressed by pater Cicerōnis or Cicerōnis pater , where the dependent noun "Cicero" (Latin Cicerō ) is placed in the genitive case (Latin Cicerōnis ) and then placed either before or after

1100-419: The genitive as a productive case, in addition to adverbial genitive expressions. The adverbial suffix -erweise added to adjectives is derived from the feminine singular genitive adjective ending -er agreeing with the noun Weise 'manner'. For example, the adverb glücklicherweise 'fortunately' can be analyzed as glücklicher Weise 'fortunate way [genitive]', i.e. 'in a fortunate way' or more explicitly ‘in

1144-591: The genitive case may be found in inclusio – that is, between the main noun's article and the noun itself. Old English had a genitive case, which has left its mark in modern English in the form of the possessive ending ' s (now sometimes referred to as the "Saxon genitive"), as well as possessive adjective forms such as his , their , etc., and in certain words derived from adverbial genitives such as once and afterwards . (Other Old English case markers have generally disappeared completely.) The modern English possessive forms are not normally considered to represent

1188-421: The genitive is marked with -n , e.g. maa – maan "country – of the country". The stem may change, however, with consonant gradation and other reasons. For example, in certain words ending in consonants, -e- is added, e.g. mies – miehen "man – of the man", and in some, but not all words ending in -i , the -i is changed to an -e- , to give -en , e.g. lumi – lumen "snow – of

1232-457: The genitive marker is attached to the full noun phrase the King of France , whereas case markers are normally attached to the head of a phrase. In languages having a true genitive case, such as Old English, this example may be expressed as þes cynges wyrre of France , literally "the King's war of France", with the ' s attaching to the King . Finnic languages ( Finnish , Estonian , etc.) have genitive cases. In Finnish, prototypically

1276-430: The genitive. For example, English my is either a separate possessive adjective or an irregular genitive of I , while in Finnish, for example, minun is regularly agglutinated from minu- "I" and -n (genitive). In some languages, nouns in the genitive case also agree in case with the nouns they modify (that is, it is marked for two cases). This phenomenon is called suffixaufnahme . In some languages, nouns in

1320-491: The head (sometimes with the dependent, or occasionally with both). In such cases it shades into the " his genitive " (see below). For example, the English so-called " Saxon genitive " (the " ' s" modifier, as in "John's father" or "the King of Spain's house"). The two genitive constructions in English (using "of" and "'s") are not synonymous. In some cases, both can be used ("John's father", "the father of John"; "the capital of

1364-406: The head noun ( pater "father"). A similar construction occurs in formal German : das Buch des Mannes "the man's book", where das Buch means "the book" and des Mannes is the genitive case of der Mann "the man". This is common in languages without grammatical case, as well as in some languages with vestigial case systems. In some languages, the linking word agrees in gender and number with

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1408-437: The head rather than the modifier—in this case hus "house" is neuter). In this case the reflexive form of the possessive pronoun is used to refer to the immediate possessor (Hilde) and not necessarily the subject of the sentence as otherwise would be the case. A variant of this construction appears in the Hungarian language, which has suffixes instead of Germanic languages' possessive pronouns. This results in constructions like

1452-416: The idiom will be the death of (e.g. "She'll be the death of me", meaning something close to "She'll be my downfall"—even though the latter sentence uses a possessive pronoun, the former uses a prepositional genitive). A construction called the double genitive is also used to precisely denote possession and resolve ambiguity in some cases. For example, the phrase "this is a picture of John's" denotes that

1496-411: The man, his house"). This construction can be seen as a variation of the above use of a linking word that agrees with the dependent. In some languages, this construction has shifted to the more normal situation for agreeing linking words where agreement is with the head, as in colloquial Norwegian Hilde sitt hus "Hilde's house" (lit. "Hilde her[REFLEXIVE] house", where the possessive pronoun agrees with

1540-412: The nation", "the nation's capital"), but some constructions feel natural one way, but expressed the other way will feel awkward or ungrammatical, or may even have a different meaning ("I found John's coat" but not I found the coat of John ; "We need to encourage the love of music" but not We need to encourage music's love ). Sometimes the seemingly discordant construction may be the right one, such as in

1584-520: The phrase bean an tí (woman of the house), tí is the genitive case of teach , meaning "house". Another example is barr an chnoic , "top of the hill", where cnoc means "hill", but is changed to chnoic , which also incorporates lenition . In Mandarin Chinese , the genitive case is made by use of the particle 的 (de). 我 wǒ 的 de 猫 māo [ 我的貓 ]   我 的 猫 wǒ de māo Genitive construction In grammar ,

1628-402: The possessive case, may be regarded as subsets of the genitive construction. For example, the genitive construction "pack of dogs” is similar, but not identical in meaning to the possessive case "dogs' pack" (and neither of these is entirely interchangeable with "dog pack", which is neither genitive nor possessive). Modern English is an example of a language that has a possessive case rather than

1672-442: The relation between nouns: A simple s is added to the end of a name: The genitive case is also commonly found after certain prepositions: The genitive case can sometimes be found in connection with certain adjectives: The genitive case is occasionally found in connection with certain verbs (some of which require an accusative before the genitive); they are mostly either formal or legal: The ablative case of Indo-European

1716-521: The singular genitive is sometimes (in a subset of words ending with a vocal in nominative) identical in form to nominative. In Finnish, in addition to the uses mentioned above, there is a construct where the genitive is used to mark a surname. For example, Juhani Virtanen can be also expressed Virtasen Juhani ("Juhani of the Virtanens"). A complication in Finnic languages is that the accusative case -(e)n

1760-402: The snow". The genitive is used extensively, with animate and inanimate possessors. In addition to the genitive, there is also a partitive case (marked -ta/-tä or -a/-ä ) used for expressing that something is a part of a larger mass, e.g. joukko miehiä "a group of men". In Estonian, the genitive marker -n has elided with respect to Finnish. Thus, the genitive always ends with a vowel, and

1804-520: The star Mintaka in the constellation Orion (genitive Orionis) is also known as Delta Orionis or 34 Orionis. Many languages have a genitive case, including Albanian , Arabic , Armenian , Basque , Danish , Dutch , Estonian , Finnish , Georgian , German , Greek , Gothic , Hungarian , Icelandic , Irish , Kannada , Latin , Latvian , Lithuanian , Malayalam , Nepali , Romanian , Sanskrit , Scottish Gaelic , Swedish , Tamil , Telugu , all Slavic languages except Macedonian , and most of

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1848-593: The suffix -i ('of') is also used. For example: Japanese construes the genitive by using the grammatical particle no の. It can be used to show a number of relationships to the head noun. For example: The archaic genitive case particle -ga ~が is still retained in certain expressions, place names, and dialects. Possessive ga can also be written as a small ke ( ヶ ), for example in Kasumigaoka ( 霞ヶ丘 ) . Typically, languages have nominative case nouns converting into genitive case. It has been found, however, that

1892-652: The use of a clitic and a preposition/linking word is not always clear. For example, the Japanese particle no の "of" is sometimes analyzed as a clitic . The particle no could alternatively be considered as either a particle, or as a suffix. In the 1600s this construction sometimes occurred in English, e.g. Ben Jonson 's play Sejanus His Fall (i.e. "Sejanus's Fall"). It is standard in Afrikaans and common in spoken German , e.g. dem Mann sein Haus "the man's house" (literally "to

1936-505: Was absorbed into the genitive in Classical Greek. This added to the usages of the "genitive proper", the usages of the "ablatival genitive". The genitive occurs with verbs, adjectives, adverbs and prepositions. See also Genitive absolute . The Hungarian genitive is constructed using the suffix -é . The genitive -é suffix is only used with the predicate of a sentence: it serves the role of mine, yours, hers, etc. The possessed object

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