3/31/2017 NominativecaseWikipedia

Nominativecase
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Thenominativecase(abbreviatedNOM)isoneofthegrammaticalcasesofanounorotherpartofspeech,which
generallymarksthesubjectofaverborthepredicatenounorpredicateadjective,asopposedtoitsobjectorother
verbarguments.Generally,thenoun"thatisdoingsomething"isinthenominative,andthenominativeisoftenthe
formlistedindictionaries.

Contents
1 Etymology
2 Linguisticcharacteristics
2.1 Subjectivecase
3 Examples
3.1 Subject
3.2 Predicatenounoradjective
4 References
5 Externallinks

Etymology
NominativecomesfromLatincsusnomintvus"casefornaming",[1]whichwastranslatedfromAncientGreek
,onomastikptsis"inflectionfornaming",[2]fromonomz"callbyname",[3]fromnoma
"name".[4]DionysiusThraxinhisArtofGrammarreferstoitasorthoreuthea"straight",[5]incontrasttothe
obliqueor"bent"cases.

Linguisticcharacteristics
Thereferenceform(moretechnically,theleastmarked)ofcertainpartsofspeechisnormallyinthenominative
case,butthisisoftennotacompletespecificationofthereferenceform,asitmayalsobenecessarytospecifythe
numberandgender.Thusthereferenceorleastmarkedformofanadjectivemightbethenominativemasculine
singular.Thepartsofspeechwhichareoftendeclinedandthereforemayhaveanominativecasearenouns,
adjectives,pronounsandlessfrequentlynumeralsandparticiples.Thenominativecaseoftenindicatesthesubject
ofaverbbutsometimesdoesnotindicateanyparticularrelationshipwithotherpartsofasentence.Insome
languagesthenominativecaseisunmarked,itmaybesaidtobemarkedbyazeromorpheme.Moreover,inmost
languageswithanominativecase,thenominativeformisthelemmathatis,itisthereferenceformusedtocitea
word,tolistitasadictionaryentry,etc.

NominativecasesarefoundinArabic,Estonian,Slovak,Ukrainian,Hungarian,Lithuanian,Georgian,German,
Latin,Greek,Icelandic,OldEnglish,OldFrench,Polish,Serbian,Czech,Romanian,Russian,andPashto,among
otherlanguages.Englishstillretainssomenominativepronouns,whicharecontrastedwiththeaccusative
(comparabletotheobliqueordisjunctiveinsomeotherlanguages):I(accusativeme),we(accusativeus),he
(accusativehim),she(accusativeher),they(accusativethem)andwho(accusativewhom).Ausagethatisarchaic
inmost,butnotall,currentEnglishdialectsisthesingularsecondpersonpronounthou(accusativethee).A
specialcaseisthewordyou:Originally,yewasitsnominativeformandyoutheaccusative,butovertimeyouhas
cometobeusedforthenominativeaswell.
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Theterm"nominativecase"ismostproperlyusedinthediscussionofnominativeaccusativelanguages,suchas
Latin,Greek,andmostmodernWesternEuropeanlanguages.

Inactivestativelanguagesthereisacasesometimescallednominativewhichisthemostmarkedcaseandisused
forthesubjectofatransitiveverboravoluntarysubjectofanintransitiveverbbutnotforaninvoluntarysubjectof
anintransitiveverbsincesuchlanguagesarearelativelynewfieldofstudy,thereisnostandardnameforthis
case.

Subjectivecase

TheEnglishlanguageisnowoftendescribedashavingasubjectivecaseinsteadofanominative,todrawattention
tothedifferencesbetweenthe"standard"genericnominativeandthewayitisusedinEnglish.[6][7][8][9][10]The
termobjectivecaseisthenusedfortheobliquecase,whichcoverstherolesofaccusative,dative,andobjectsofa
preposition.Thegenitivecaseisthenusuallycalledthepossessiveform,ratherthananouncaseperse.Inthis
system,Englishissaidtohavetwocases:thesubjectiveandtheobjective.

Examples
Subject

Thenominativecasemarksthesubjectofaverb.Whentheverbisactive,thenominativeisthepersonorthing
doingtheaction(agent)whentheverbispassive,thenominativeisthepersonorthingreceivingtheaction.

Theboysawher.
Shewasseen.

Predicatenounoradjective

Thenominativecanalsochangeadjectivesintonouns

Socrateswasawiseman.
Socrateswaswise.

References
1.nominativus(http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0059:entry=nominativus).CharltonT.
LewisandCharlesShort.ALatinDictionaryonPerseusProject.
2.(http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=o)nomastiko/s).Liddell,
HenryGeorgeScott,RobertAGreekEnglishLexiconatthePerseusProject
3.(http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=o)noma/zw)
4.(http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=o/noma)
5.DionysiusThrax.(http://www.hsaugsburg.de/~harsch/graeca/Chronologia/S_ante02/DionysiosThrax/
dio_tech.html)(ArtofGrammar),section(10b):(Onthenoun).BibliothecaAugustana.
6."Personalpronoun".OxfordDictionaries.OxfordUniversityPress.Retrieved20160129.
7."GrammarHandbookWritersWorkshop:WriterResourcesTheCenterforWritingStudies,Illinois".
www.cws.illinois.edu.Retrieved20150923.
8.Shrives,Craig."WhatIstheSubjectiveCase?(grammarlesson)".www.grammarmonster.com.Retrieved20150923.
9."WhatIstheSubjective(orNominative)Case?".Retrieved20150923.
10."SubjectiveandObjectiveCase@TheInternetGrammarofEnglish".www.ucl.ac.uk.Retrieved20150923.

Externallinks
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominative_case 2/3
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Germannominativecase(http://www.deutsched.com/Grammar/Lessons/0204dative.php)Alessoncovering
thenominativecaseintheGermanlanguage
TheNominativeCaseRussianGrammar(http://www.russianlessons.net/grammar/nouns_nominative.php)
AlessoncoveringthenominativecaseintheRussianlanguage

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Categories: Grammaticalcases

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