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In
grammar
In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structure, structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clause (linguistics), clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraint ...
, the genitive case (
abbreviated
An abbreviation (from Latin ''brevis'', meaning ''short'') is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method. It may consist of a group of letters or words taken from the full version of the word or phrase; for example, the word ''abbrevia ...
) is the
grammatical case
A grammatical case is a category of nouns and noun modifiers (determiners, adjectives, participles, and Numeral (linguistics), numerals), which corresponds to one or more potential grammatical functions for a nominal group in a wording. In vari ...
that marks a word, usually a
noun
A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for:
* Living creatures (including people, alive, d ...
, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an
attributive
In grammar, an attributive expression is a word or phrase within a noun phrase that modifies the head noun. It may be an:
* attributive adjective
* attributive noun
* attributive verb
or other part of speech, such as an attributive numeral.
...
relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can also serve purposes indicating other relationships. For example, some
verb
A verb () is a word (part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descri ...
s may feature
arguments
An argument is a statement or group of statements called premises intended to determine the degree of truth or acceptability of another statement called conclusion. Arguments can be studied from three main perspectives: the logical, the dialectic ...
in the genitive case; and the genitive case may also have
adverb An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, adjective, another adverb, determiner, clause, preposition, or sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, level of certainty, etc., answering ...
ial uses (see
adverbial genitive
In grammar, an adverbial genitive is a noun declined in the genitive case that functions as an adverb.
English
In Old and Middle English, the genitive case was productive, and adverbial genitives were commonplace. While Modern English does n ...
).
Genitive construction
In grammar, 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 ( ...
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 linguistics, the head or nucleus of a phrase is the word that determines the syntactic category of that phrase. For example, the head of the noun phrase ''boiling hot water'' is the noun ''water''. Analogously, the head of a compound is the s ...
, in a genitive construction. However, there are other ways to indicate a genitive construction. For example, many
Afroasiatic languages
The Afroasiatic languages (or Afro-Asiatic), also known as Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic, and sometimes also as Afrasian, Erythraean or Lisramic, are a language family of about 300 languages that are spoken predominantly in the geographic su ...
place the head noun (rather than the modifying noun) in the
construct state
In Afro-Asiatic languages, the first noun in a genitive phrase of a possessed noun followed by a possessor noun often takes on a special morphological form, which is termed the construct state (Latin ''status constructus''). For example, in Arabi ...
.
Possessive
A possessive or ktetic form (abbreviated or ; from la, possessivus; grc, κτητικός, translit=ktētikós) is a word or grammatical construction used to indicate a relationship of possession in a broad sense. This can include strict owne ...
grammatical constructions, including the possessive case, may be regarded as a subset of 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 a ''conventional'' genitive case. That is, Modern English indicates a genitive construction with either the possessive
clitic suffix "
-", or a
preposition
Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') or mark various ...
al 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 the star
Mintaka
Mintaka , designation Delta Orionis (δ Orionis, abbreviated Delta Ori, δ Ori) and 34 Orionis (34 Ori), is a multiple star system some 1,200 light-years from the Sun in the constellation of Orion. Together with Alnitak (Zeta Or ...
in the constellation
Orion (genitive Orionis) is also known as Delta Orionis or 34 Orionis.
Many languages have a genitive case, including
Albanian,
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
,
Armenian
Armenian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent
** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...
,
Basque
Basque may refer to:
* Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France
* Basque language, their language
Places
* Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France
* Basque Country (autonomous co ...
,
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
,
Estonian,
Finnish
Finnish may refer to:
* Something or someone from, or related to Finland
* Culture of Finland
* Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland
* Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people
* Finnish cuisine
See also ...
,
Georgian
Georgian may refer to:
Common meanings
* Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country)
** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group
** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians
**Georgian scripts, three scrip ...
,
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
,
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
,
Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
,
Hungarian,
Icelandic,
Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
,
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
,
Latvian,
Lithuanian,
Nepali,
Romanian
Romanian may refer to:
*anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania
**Romanians, an ethnic group
**Romanian language, a Romance language
*** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language
** Romanian cuisine, tradition ...
,
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
,
Scottish Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well as ...
,
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
,
Kannada
Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...
,
Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
* Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia
**Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils
**Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia
* Tamil language, nativ ...
,
Telugu
Telugu may refer to:
* Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India
*Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India
* Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language
** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode
S ...
,
Turkish and all
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic, spoken during the Ear ...
except
Bulgarian
Bulgarian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria
* Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group
* Bulgarian language, a Slavic language
* Bulgarian alphabet
* A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria
* Bul ...
and
Macedonian.
Functions
Depending on the language, specific varieties of genitive-noun–main-noun relationships may include:
*
possession
Possession may refer to:
Law
* Dependent territory, an area of land over which another country exercises sovereignty, but which does not have the full right of participation in that country's governance
* Drug possession, a crime
* Ownership
* ...
(''see''
possessive
A possessive or ktetic form (abbreviated or ; from la, possessivus; grc, κτητικός, translit=ktētikós) is a word or grammatical construction used to indicate a relationship of possession in a broad sense. This can include strict owne ...
case,
possessed case):
**
inalienable possession
In linguistics, inalienable possession (abbreviated ) is a type of possession in which a noun is obligatorily possessed by its possessor. Nouns or nominal affixes in an inalienable possession relationship cannot exist independently or be "ali ...
("''Janet's'' height", "''Janet's'' existence", "''Janet's'' long fingers")
**
alienable possession
In linguistics, inalienable possession (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a type of possession (linguistics), possession in which a noun is Obligatory possession, obligatorily possessed by its possessor. Nouns or nominal (linguist ...
("''Janet's'' jacket", "''Janet's'' drink")
** relationship indicated by the noun being modified ("''Janet's'' husband")
* composition (''see''
Partitive In linguistics, the partitive is a word, phrase, or case that indicates partialness. Nominal partitives are syntactic constructions, such as "some of the children", and may be classified semantically as either set partitives or entity partitives ba ...
):
** substance ("a wheel ''of cheese''")
** elements ("a group ''of men''")
** source ("a portion ''of the food''")
* participation in an action:
** as an
agent
Agent may refer to:
Espionage, investigation, and law
*, spies or intelligence officers
* Law of agency, laws involving a person authorized to act on behalf of another
** Agent of record, a person with a contractual agreement with an insuranc ...
("She benefited from ''her father's'' love") – this is called the ''subjective genitive'' (Compare "Her father loved her", where ''Her father'' is the ''subject''.)
** as a
patient
A patient is any recipient of health care services that are performed by healthcare professionals. The patient is most often ill or injured and in need of treatment by a physician, nurse, optometrist, dentist, veterinarian, or other hea ...
("the love ''of music''") – this is called the ''objective genitive'' (Compare "She loves music", where ''music'' is the ''object''.)
* origin ("men ''of Rome''")
* reference ("the capital ''of the Republic''" or "''the Republic's'' capital")
* description ("man ''of honour''", "day ''of reckoning''")
* compounds ("''dooms''day" ("doom's day"),
Scottish Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well as ...
"''ball coise''" = "football", where "''coise''" = gen. of "''cas''", "foot")
*
apposition
Apposition is a grammatical construction in which two elements, normally noun phrases, are placed side by side so one element identifies the other in a different way. The two elements are said to be ''in apposition'', and one of the elements is ...
(
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
牛の角 (''ushi no tsuno''), "cow horn")
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 the genitive. For example, English ''my'' is either a separate
possessive adjective Possessive determiners (from la, possessivus, translit=; grc, κτητικός / ktētikós - en. ktetic
Lallu) are determiners which express possession. Some traditional grammars of English refer to them as possessive adjectives, though they ...
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 the genitive case may be found in
inclusio
In biblical studies, inclusio is a literary device based on a concentric principle, also known as bracketing or an envelope structure, which consists of creating a frame by placing similar material at the beginning and end of a section, although w ...
– that is, between the main noun's
article
Article often refers to:
* Article (grammar), a grammatical element used to indicate definiteness or indefiniteness
* Article (publishing), a piece of nonfictional prose that is an independent part of a publication
Article may also refer to:
G ...
and the noun itself.
English
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
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 genitive
In grammar, an adverbial genitive is a noun declined in the genitive case that functions as an adverb.
English
In Old and Middle English, the genitive case was productive, and adverbial genitives were commonplace. While Modern English does n ...
s 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 a grammatical case, although they are sometimes referred to as genitives or as belonging to a
possessive case
A possessive or ktetic form (abbreviated or ; from la, possessivus; grc, κτητικός, translit=ktētikós) is a word or grammatical construction used to indicate a relationship of possession in a broad sense. This can include strict owne ...
. 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 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 genitives and accusatives
Finnic languages
The Finnic (''Fennic'') or more precisely Balto-Finnic (Balto-Fennic, Baltic Finnic, Baltic Fennic) languages constitute a branch of the Uralic language family spoken around the Baltic Sea by the Baltic Finnic peoples. There are around 7 mi ...
(
Finnish
Finnish may refer to:
* Something or someone from, or related to Finland
* Culture of Finland
* Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland
* Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people
* Finnish cuisine
See also ...
,
Estonian, etc.) have genitive cases.
In Finnish, prototypically the genitive is marked with ''-n'', e.g. ''maa – maan'' "country – of the country". The stem may change, however, with
consonant gradation
Consonant gradation is a type of consonant mutation (mostly lenition but also assimilation) found in some Uralic languages, more specifically in the Finnic, Samic and Samoyedic branches. It originally arose as an allophonic alternation betw ...
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 the snow". The genitive is used extensively, with animate and inanimate possessors. In addition to the genitive, there is also a
partitive case
The partitive case (abbreviated , , or more ambiguously ) is a grammatical case which denotes "partialness", "without result", or "without specific identity". It is also used in contexts where a subgroup is selected from a larger group, or with nu ...
(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 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
The accusative case (abbreviated ) of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb.
In the English language, the only words that occur in the accusative case are pronouns: 'me,' 'him,' 'her,' 'us,' and ‘the ...
''-(e)n'' 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
Telic may refer to:
*Grammatically, indicating telicity
*A central argument of Teleology says that the world has clearly been constructed in a purposeful telic rather than a chaotic manner, and must therefore have been made by a rational being, i.e ...
(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 a synchronic mutation of a final ''m'' into ''n'' in Finnish, e.g. genitive ''sydämen'' vs. nominative ''sydän''.) This homophony has exceptions in
Finnish
Finnish may refer to:
* Something or someone from, or related to Finland
* Culture of Finland
* Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland
* Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people
* Finnish cuisine
See also ...
, 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
Sámi languages ( ), in English also rendered as Sami and Saami, are a group of Uralic languages spoken by the Sámi people in Northern Europe (in parts of northern Finland, Norway, Sweden, and extreme northwestern Russia). There are, dependin ...
, 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.
German
Formation
Articles
The genitive singular definite article for masculine and neuter nouns 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.)
Nouns
Singular masculine and neuter nouns of the strong declension in the genitive case are marked with ''-(e)s''. Generally, one-syllable nouns favour 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:
* (of the contribution) – masculine
* (of the flower) – feminine
* (of the country) – neuter
* (of the trees) – plural
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:
* (of the raven) – masculine
* (of the heart) – neuter
Adjectives
The declension of adjectives in the genitive case is as follows:
Personal pronouns
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:
* (Would you go instead ''of me''?)
* (We are not worthy ''of her/them'')
* (I will commemorate ''you'')
Relative pronouns
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:
* '' Kennst du den Schüler, dessen Mutter eine Hexe ist?'' (Do you know the student ''whose'' mother is a witch?) – masculine
* ''Sie ist die Frau, deren Mann Rennfahrer ist'' (She is the woman ''whose'' husband is a racer) – feminine
Usage
Nouns
The genitive case is often used to show possession or the relation between nouns:
*die Farbe ''des'' ''Himmels'' (the colour ''of the'' ''sky'')
*Deutschland liegt im Herzen ''Europas'' (Germany lies in the heart ''of Europe'')
*der Tod ''seiner Frau'' (the death ''of his wife'')
*die Entwicklung ''dieser Länder'' (the development ''of these countries'')
A simple ''s'' is added to the end of a name:
*''Claudias'' Buch (''Claudia's'' book)
Prepositions
The genitive case is also commonly found after certain prepositions:
* innerhalb ''eines Tages'' (within ''a day'')
* statt ''des'' ''Hemdes'' (instead ''of the shirt'')
* während ''unserer'' ''Abwesenheit'' (during ''our absence'')
* jenseits ''der Berge'' (beyond ''the mountains'')
Adjectives
The genitive case can sometimes be found in connection with certain adjectives:
* Wir sind uns ''dessen'' bewusst (We are aware ''of that'')
* Er ist ''des Diebstahls'' schuldig (He is guilty ''of theft'')
* Das Kind ist ''der Ruhe'' bedürftig (The child is in need ''of calmness'')
* Ich werde ''dieses Lebens'' überdrüssig (I am growing weary ''of this life'')
Verbs
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:
* Die Stadt erfreut sich ''eines günstigen Klimas'' (The city enjoys ''a favourable climate'')
* Gedenken Sie ''der Toten'' des Krieges (Remember ''those who died'' in (the) war)
* Wer klagte ihn ''des Mordes'' an? (Who accused him ''of murder''?)
* Man verdächtigt euch ''des Betrugs'' (Someone suspects you ''of (committing) fraud'')
Greek
The
ablative case of Indo-European 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.
Hungarian
The
Hungarian genitive is constructed using the suffix ''-é''.
*''madár'' ('bird'); ''madáré'' ('bird's')
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 is left in the nominative case. For example:
*''A csőr a madáré'' ('The beak is the bird's').
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
In phonology, vowel harmony is an Assimilation (linguistics), assimilatory process in which the vowels of a given domain – typically a phonological word – have to be members of the same natural class (thus "in harmony"). Vowel harmony is t ...
) 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:
*''csőr'' ('beak'); ''csőre'' ('its beak')
*''a madár csőre''/''csőre a madárnak'' ('the bird's beak')
In addition, the suffix ''-i'' ('of') is also used. For example:
*''madár'' ('bird'); ''madári'' ('avian', 'of bird(s)')
Japanese
The
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
possessive is constructed by using the
grammatical particle ''no'' の to make the genitive case. For example:
:Nominative: 猫 ''neko'' ('cat'); 手 ''te'' ('hand, paw')
:Genitive: 猫の手 ''neko-no te'' ('cat's paw')
It also uses the suffix ''-na'' 〜な for
adjectival noun; in some analyses adjectival nouns are simply nouns that take ''-na'' in the genitive, forming a
complementary distribution
In linguistics, complementary distribution, as distinct from contrastive distribution and free variation, is the relationship between two different elements of the same kind in which one element is found in one set of environments and the other ele ...
(''-no'' and ''-na'' being
allomorph
In linguistics, an allomorph is a variant phonetic form of a morpheme, or, a unit of meaning that varies in sound and spelling without changing the meaning. The term ''allomorph'' describes the realization of phonological variations for a specif ...
s).
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
The small ''ke'' () is a Japanese character, typographically a small form of the katakana character ''ke''.
While identical in shape to a small , is actually an abbreviation for the kanji , specifically by writing half of the bamboo radical ( ...
(), for example in .
Typically, languages have nominative case nouns converting into genitive case. It has been found, however, that the
Kansai dialect
The is a group of Japanese dialects in the Kansai region (Kinki region) of Japan. In Japanese, is the common name and it is called in technical terms. The dialects of Kyoto and Osaka are known as , and were particularly referred to as suc ...
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."
Latin
The genitive is one of the cases of nouns and pronouns in
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
. Latin genitives still have certain modern scientific uses:
*
Scientific names
In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...
of living things sometimes contain genitives, as in the plant name ''
Buddleja davidii
''Buddleja davidii'' (spelling variant ''Buddleia davidii''), also called summer lilac, butterfly-bush, or orange eye, is a species of flowering plant in the family (biology), family Scrophulariaceae, native plant, native to Sichuan and Hubei pro ...
'', meaning "David's buddleia". Here ''davidii'' is the genitive of ''Davidius'', a
Latinized version of the Hebrew name. It is not capitalized because it is the second part of a binomial name.
*Names of astronomical constellations are Latin, and the genitives of their names are used in naming objects in those constellations, as in the
Bayer designation of stars. For example, the brightest star in the constellation
Virgo
Virgo may refer to:
*Virgo (astrology), the sixth astrological sign of the zodiac
* Virgo (constellation), a constellation
*Virgo Cluster, a cluster of galaxies in the constellation Virgo
*Virgo Stellar Stream, remains of a dwarf galaxy
* Virgo Su ...
is called ''Alpha Virginis'', which is to say "Alpha of Virgo", as ''virginis'' is the genitive of ''virgō''. Note that plural forms and adjectives also decline accordingly: plural ''Alpha Piscium'' (
Pisces
Pisces may refer to:
* Pisces, an obsolete (because of land vertebrates) taxonomic superclass including all fish
* Pisces (astrology), an astrological sign
* Pisces (constellation), a constellation
**Pisces Overdensity, an overdensity of stars in ...
) and ''Alpha Canum Venaticorum'' (
Canes Venatici
Canes Venatici () is one of the 88 constellations designated by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). It is a small northern constellation that was created by Johannes Hevelius in the 17th century. Its name is Latin for 'hunting dogs', and ...
) versus singular ''Alpha Piscis Austrini'' (
Piscis Austrinus
Piscis Austrinus is a constellation in the southern celestial hemisphere. The name is Latin for "the southern fish", in contrast with the larger constellation Pisces, which represents a pair of fish. Before the 20th century, it was also known a ...
) and ''Alpha Canis Majoris'' (
Canis Major
Canis Major is a constellation in the Southern Celestial Hemisphere, southern celestial hemisphere. In the second century, it was included in Ptolemy's 48 constellations, and is counted among the 88 modern constellations. Its name is Latin fo ...
). Astronomy manuals often list the genitive forms, as some are easy to get wrong even with a basic knowledge of Latin, e.g.
Vela, which is a neuter plural not a feminine singular: ''Delta Velorum'' not *''Delta Velae''.
* ''
Modus operandi
A ''modus operandi'' (often shortened to M.O.) is someone's habits of working, particularly in the context of business or criminal investigations, but also more generally. It is a Latin phrase, approximately translated as "mode (or manner) of op ...
'', which can be translated to English as "mode of operation", in which ''operandi'' is a singular genitive
gerund
In linguistics, a gerund ( abbreviated ) is any of various nonfinite verb forms in various languages; most often, but not exclusively, one that functions as a noun. In English, it has the properties of both verb and noun, such as being modifiable ...
(i.e. "of operation"), not a plural of ''operandus'' as is sometimes mistakenly assumed.
Irish
The
Irish language
Irish ( Standard Irish: ), also known as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland and was ...
also uses a genitive case (''tuiseal ginideach''). For example, in 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 linguistics, lenition is a sound change that alters consonants, making them more sonority hierarchy, sonorous. The word ''lenition'' itself means "softening" or "weakening" (from Latin 'weak'). Lenition can happen both synchronic analysis, s ...
.
Mandarin
In
Mandarin Chinese
Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language of ...
, the genitive case is made by use of the particle 的 (de).
However, about persons in relation to oneself, 的 is often dropped when the context allows for it to be easily understood.
Persian
Old Persian
Old Persian is one of the two directly attested Old Iranian languages (the other being Avestan language, Avestan) and is the ancestor of Middle Persian (the language of Sasanian Empire). Like other Old Iranian languages, it was known to its native ...
had a true genitive case inherited from
Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo-E ...
. By the time of
Middle Persian
Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle Per ...
, the genitive case had been lost and replaced by an analytical construction which is now called
Ezāfe
Ezāfe ( fa, اضافه, lit=extra), also romanized as ''ezâfe'', ''izafet'', ''izafe'', ''izafat'', ''izāfa'', ''ezafe'', and ''izofa'' ( tg, изофа, izofa), is a grammatical particle found in some Iranian languages, as well as Persian-i ...
. This construction was inherited by
New Persian
New Persian ( fa, فارسی نو), also known as Modern Persian () and Dari (), is the current stage of the Persian language spoken since the 8th to 9th centuries until now in Greater Iran and surroundings. It is conventionally divided into thre ...
, and was also later borrowed into numerous other
Iranic
The Iranian peoples or Iranic peoples are a diverse grouping of Indo-European peoples who are identified by their usage of the Iranian languages and other cultural similarities.
The Proto-Iranians are believed to have emerged as a separate ...
,
Turkic and
Indo-Aryan languages of Western and South Asia.
Semitic languages
Genitive case marking existed in
Proto-Semitic
Proto-Semitic is the hypothetical reconstructed proto-language ancestral to the Semitic languages. There is no consensus regarding the location of the Proto-Semitic ''Urheimat''; scholars hypothesize that it may have originated in the Levant (m ...
,
Akkadian Akkadian or Accadian may refer to:
* Akkadians, inhabitants of the Akkadian Empire
* Akkadian language, an extinct Eastern Semitic language
* Akkadian literature, literature in this language
* Akkadian cuneiform
Cuneiform is a logo- syllabi ...
, and
Ugaritic
Ugaritic () is an extinct Northwest Semitic language, classified by some as a dialect of the Amorite language and so the only known Amorite dialect preserved in writing. It is known through the Ugaritic texts discovered by French archaeologis ...
. It indicated possession, and it is preserved today only in
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
.
Akkadian
:Nominative: ''šarrum'' (king)
:Genitive: ''aššat šarrim'' (wife of king = king's wife)
Arabic
Called المجرور ''al-majrūr'' (meaning "dragged") in
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
, the genitive case functions both as an indication of ownership (ex. the door of the house) and for nouns following a preposition.
:Nominative: ٌبيت ''baytun'' (a house)
:Genitive: ٍبابُ بيت ''bābu baytin'' (door of a house) ِبابُ البيت ''bābu l-bayti'' (door of the house)
The Arabic genitive marking also appears after prepositions.
:e.g. ٍبابٌ لبيت ''bābun li-baytin'' (a door for a house)
The Semitic genitive should not be confused with the pronominal possessive suffixes that exist in all the Semitic languages
:e.g. Arabic بيتي ''bayt-ī'' (my house) َكتابُك ''kitābu-ka'' (your
asc.book).
Slavic languages
With the exception of Bulgarian and Macedonian, all
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic, spoken during the Ear ...
decline the nouns and adjectives in accordance with the genitive case using a variety of endings depending on the word's
lexical category, its gender, number (singular or plural) and in some cases meaning.
Possessives
To indicate possession the ending of the noun indicating the possessor changes depending on the word's ending in the
nominative case
In grammar, the nominative case (abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or (in Latin and formal variants of Engl ...
.
For example, to ''a, u, i or y'' in
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent
* Polish chicken
*Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...
, ''а, я, ы or и'' in
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
, ''а, я, y, ю, і, и or ей'' in
Ukrainian
Ukrainian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Ukraine
* Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe
* Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine
* So ...
, and similar cases in other Slavic languages.
:Nominative: (pol.) "Oto Anton" / (rus.) "Вот Антон" / (ukr.) "Ось Антон" ("Here is Anton").
:Genitive: (pol.) "Oto obiad Antonа" / (rus.) "Вот обед Антона" / (ukr.) "Ось oбід Антона" ("Here is Anton's lunch").
Possessives can also be formed by the construction (pol.) "u
ubjectjest
bject / (rus.) "У
ubjectесть
bject/ (ukr.) "у(в)
ubjectє
bject
:Nominative: (pol.) "Oto Anton" / (rus.) "Вот Антон" / (ukr.) "Ось Антон" ("Here is Anton").
:Genitive: (pol.) "u Antonа jest obiad / (rus.) "У Антона есть обед" / (ukr.) "У(В) Антона є обід" ("Anton has a lunch", literally: "(There) is a lunch at Anton's").
In sentences where the possessor includes an associated pronoun, the pronoun also changes:
:Nominative: (pol.) Oto mój brat / (rus.) "Вот мой брат"/ (ukr.) "От мій брат" ("Here is my brother").
:Genitive: (pol.) "u mojego bratа jest obiad / (rus.) "У моего брата есть обед" / (ukr.) "У мого брата є обід" ("My brother has a lunch", literally: "(There) is a lunch at my_brother's").
And in sentences denoting negative possession, the ending of the object noun also changes:
:Nominative: (pol.) "Oto Irena" / (rus.) "Вот Ирена" / (ukr.) "От Ірена" ("Here is Irene").
:Genitive: (pol.) "Irena nie ma obiadu ("Irene does not have a lunch") or (pol.) "u Ireny nie ma obiadu ("(There) is no lunch at Irene's")
Note that the Polish phrase "nie ma
bject can work both as a negation of having
bjector a negation of an existence of
bject
but the meaning of the two sentences and its structure is different. (In the first case
ubjectis Irene, and in the second case
ubjectis virtual, it is "the space" at Irene's place, not Irene herself)
:Genitive: (rus.) "У Ирены нет обеда" ("Irene does not have a lunch", literally: "(There) is no lunch at Irene's").
Note that the Russian word "нет" is a contraction of "не" + "есть".
In Russian there is no distinction between
ubjectnot having an
bjectand
bjectnot being present at
ubjects.
:Genitive: (ukr.) "Ірена не має обіду ("Irene does not have a lunch") or (ukr.) "y Ірени нема(є) обіду ("At Irene's does not have a lunch")
Note the difference between the spelling "не має
bject and "нема(є)
bject in both cases.
To express negation
The genitive case is also used in sentences expressing negation, even when no possessive relationship is involved. The ending of the subject noun changes just as it does in possessive sentences. The genitive, in this sense, can only be used to negate nominative, accusative and genitive sentences, and not other cases.
:Nominative: (pol.) "(Czy) Maria jest w domu?" / (rus.) "Мария дома?" / (Чи) Марія (є) вдома? ("Is Maria at home?").
:Genitive: (pol.) "Marii nie ma w domu" ("Maria is not at home", literally: "
irtual subjecthas no Maria at home")
:Genitive: (rus.) "Марии нет дома" ("Maria is not at home", literally: "Of Maria there is none at home.").
:Genitive: (ukr.) "Марії нема(є) вдома" ("Maria is not at home", literally: "
irtual subjecthas no Maria at home.")
:Accusative: (pol.) "Mogę rozczytać twoje pismo" / (rus.) Могу (про)читать твой почерк / (ukr.) Можу (про)читати твій почерк ("I can read your handwriting")
:Genitive: (pol.) "Nie mogę rozczytać twojego pisma" / (rus.) "Не могу (про)читать твоего почерка" / (ukr.) "Не можу (про)читати твого почерку" ("I can't read your handwriting")
Use of genitive for negation is obligatory in
Slovene,
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent
* Polish chicken
*Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...
and
Old Church Slavonic
Old Church Slavonic or Old Slavonic () was the first Slavic languages, Slavic literary language.
Historians credit the 9th-century Byzantine Empire, Byzantine missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius with Standard language, standardizing the lan ...
. Some East Slavic languages ( e.g.
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
and
Belorussian) employ either the accusative or genitive for negation, although the genitive is more commonly used. In
Czech
Czech may refer to:
* Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe
** Czech language
** Czechs, the people of the area
** Czech culture
** Czech cuisine
* One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus'
Places
* Czech, ...
,
Slovak and
Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and ...
, negating with the genitive case is perceived as rather archaic and the accusative is preferred, but genitive negation in these languages is still not uncommon, especially in music and literature.
Partial direct object
The genitive case is used with some verbs and
mass noun
In linguistics, a mass noun, uncountable noun, non-count noun, uncount noun, or just uncountable, is a noun with the syntactic property that any quantity of it is treated as an undifferentiated unit, rather than as something with discrete elemen ...
s to indicate that the action covers only a part of the direct object (having a function of non-existing partitive case), whereas similar constructions using the
Accusative case
The accusative case (abbreviated ) of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb.
In the English language, the only words that occur in the accusative case are pronouns: 'me,' 'him,' 'her,' 'us,' and ‘the ...
denote full coverage. Compare the sentences:
:Genitive: (pol.) "Napiłem się wody" / (rus.) "Я напился воды" / (ukr.) "Я напився води" ("I drank water," i.e. "I drank some water, part of the water available")
:Accusative: (pol.) "Wypiłem wodę" / (rus.) "Я выпил воду / (ukr.) "Я випив воду ("I drank the water," i.e. "I drank all the water, all the water in question")
In Russian, special
partitive case
The partitive case (abbreviated , , or more ambiguously ) is a grammatical case which denotes "partialness", "without result", or "without specific identity". It is also used in contexts where a subgroup is selected from a larger group, or with nu ...
or sub-case is observed for some uncountable nouns which in some contexts have preferred alternative form on -у/ю instead of standard genitive on -а/я: выпил чаю ('drank some tea'), but сорта чая ('sorts of tea').
Prepositional constructions
The genitive case is also used in many prepositional constructions. (Usually when some movement or change of state is involved, and when describing the source / destination of the movement. Sometimes also when describing the manner of acting.)
*Czech prepositions using genitive case: od (from), z, ze (from), do (into), bez (without), kromě (excepting), místo (instead of), podle (after, according to), podél (along), okolo (around), u (near, by), vedle (beside), během (during), pomocí (using, by the help of), stran (as regards) etc.
*Polish prepositions using genitive case: od (from), z, ze (from), do, w (into), na (onto), bez (without), zamiast (instead of), wedle (after, according to), wzdłuż (along), około (around), u (near, by), koło (beside), podczas (during), etc.
*Russian prepositions using genitive case: от (from), с, со (from), до (before, up to), без (without), кроме (excepting), вместо (instead of), после (after), вдоль (along), около (around), у (near, by), во время (during), насчёт (regarding), etc.
Turkish
The
Turkish genitive, formed with a genitive suffix for the possessor, is used in combination with a possessive for the possessed entity, formed with a
possessive suffix
In linguistics, a possessive affix (from la, affixum possessivum) is an affix (usually suffix or prefix) attached to a noun to indicate its possessor, much in the manner of possessive adjectives.
Possessive affixes are found in many languages o ...
. For example, in "my mother's mother", the possessor is "my mother", and the possessed entity is "
ermother". In Turkish:
:Nominative: ''anne'' ("mother");
:First-person possessive: ''annem'' ("my mother");
:Third-person possessive: ''annesi'' ("
omeones mother");
:Genitive of ''annem'': ''annemin'' ("my mother's");
:Genitive and possive combined: ''annemin annesi'' ("my mother's mother", i.e., "my maternal grandmother").
Albanian
The genitive in
Albanian is formed with the help of clitics. For example:
:Nominative: ''libër'' ('book'); ''vajzë'' ('girl');
:Genitive: ''libri i vajzës'' (the girl's book)
If the possessed object is masculine, the clitic is ''i''. If the possessed object is feminine, the clitic is ''e''. If the possessed object is plural, the clitic is ''e'' regardless of the gender.
The genitive is used with some prepositions: ''me anë'' ('by means of'), ''nga ana'' ('on behalf of', 'from the side of'), ''për arsye'' ('due to'), ''për shkak'' ('because of'), ''me përjashtim'' ('with the exception of'), ''në vend'' ('instead of').
Dravidian languages
Kannada
In Kannada, the genitive case-endings are:
for masculine or feminine nouns ending in "ಅ" (a): ನ (na)
* Examples: ''sūrya-na'' ('of the sun')
for neuter nouns ending in "ಅ" (a): ದ (da)
* Examples: ''mara-da'' ('of the tree')
for all nouns ending in "ಇ" (i), "ಈ" (ī), "ಎ" (e), or "ಏ" (ē): ಅ (a)
* Examples: ''mane-y-a'' ('of the house'; note that a linking "y" is added between the stem and the suffix)
for all nouns ending in "ಉ" (u), "ಊ" (ū), "ಋ" (r̥), or "ೠ" (r̥̄): ಇನ (ina)
* Examples; ''guru-v-ina'' ('of the teacher'; note that a linking "v" is added between the stem and the suffix)
Most postpositions in Kannada take the genitive case.
Tamil
In Tamil, the genitive case ending is the word உடைய or இன், which signifies possession. Depending on the last letter of the noun, the genitive case endings may vary.
If the last letter is a consonant (மெய் எழுத்து), like க், ங், ச், ஞ், ட், ண், த், ந், ப், ம், ய், ர், ல், வ், ழ், then the suffix உடைய/இன் gets added. *Examples: His: அவன் + உடைய = அவனுடைய, Doctor's: மருத்துவர் + உடைய = மருத்துவருடைய, மருத்துவர் + இன் = மருத்துவரின் Kumar's: குமார் + உடைய = குமாருடைய, குமார்+ இன் = குமாரின்
See also
*
Genitive construction
In grammar, 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 ( ...
*
Possessive case
A possessive or ktetic form (abbreviated or ; from la, possessivus; grc, κτητικός, translit=ktētikós) is a word or grammatical construction used to indicate a relationship of possession in a broad sense. This can include strict owne ...
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
German genitive caseA lesson covering the genitive case in the German language
*Russian genitive
Genitive Case In Arabic
{{DEFAULTSORT:Genitive Case
Grammatical cases
*