Declension
Encyclopedia
In linguistics
, declension is the inflection
of noun
s, pronoun
s, adjective
s, and articles
to indicate number
(at least singular and plural), case
(nominative or subjective
, genitive or possessive
, etc.), and gender
. A declension is also a group of nouns that follow a particular pattern of inflection.
Declension occurs in many of the world's languages, and features very prominently in many European languages. Old English was a highly inflected language, as befitting its Indo-European
and especially its Germanic
linguistic ancestry, but its declensions greatly simplified as it evolved into Modern English
.
, nouns have distinct singular and plural forms; that is, they decline to reflect their grammatical number. (Consider the difference between book and books.) In addition, a small number of English pronouns have distinct nominative and objective forms; that is, they decline to reflect their relationship to a verb
or preposition. (Consider the difference between he (nominative) and him (dative or accusative), as in "He saw it" and "It saw him".) Further, these pronouns and a few others have distinct possessive forms, such as his. By contrast, nouns have no distinct nominative and objective forms, the two being merged into a single plain case. For example, chair does not change form between "the chair is here" (subject) and "I saw the chair" (direct object). Possession is shown by the clitic
-'s attached to a possessive noun phrase
, rather than by declension of the noun itself.
Gender is at best only weakly grammaticalized in Modern English. While masculine, feminine, and neuter genders are recognized, nouns do not normally decline for gender, though some nouns, especially Latin words and personal names, exist in multiple forms corresponding to different genders: Alumnus (male, singular)/Alumna (female, singular); Andrew/Andrea, Paul/Paula, etc. Suffixes such as -ess, -ette, and -er can also derive overtly gendered versions of nouns, with marking for feminine being much more common than marking for masculine. Many nouns can actually function as members of two genders or even all three, and the gender classes of English nouns are usually determined by their agreement with pronouns, rather than marking on the nouns themselves.
Adjectives are rarely declined for any purpose. They can be declined for number when they are used as substitutes for nouns (as in, "I'll take the reds", meaning "I'll take the red ones" or as shorthand for "I'll take the red wines", for example). Some adjectives borrowed from other languages are, or can be, declined for gender, at least in writing: blond (male) and blonde (female) or a bonie lad as compared to a bonnie lass. Adjectives are not declined for case in Modern English, though they were in Old English.
The article is never regarded as declined in Modern English, although technically the words this and that, and their plural forms these and those, are modern forms of the as it was declined in Old English. Certain non-standard regional and economic class-associated dialects do decline the article, either in regular speech or in slang - as in expressions such as "How do you like them apples?" and "Oh, them are nice!" (instead of "those").
noun declension is given below, using the singular forms of the word homo (man), which belongs to Latin's third declension.
(nominative
) "[the] man" [as a subject] (e.g., the man is standing there) (genitive
) "of [the] man" [as a possessor] (e.g., the man's name is Claudius) (dative
) "to [the] man" [as an indirect object] (e.g., I gave a present to the man; Man is a wolf to man.) (accusative
) "[the] man" [as a direct object] (e.g., toward the man, in the sense of argument directed personally; I saw the man) (ablative
) "[the] man" [in various uses not covered by the above] (e.g., I am taller than the man).
There are two further noun cases in Latin, the vocative and the locative.
The vocative case indicates that a person or thing is being addressed (e.g., O Tite, cur ancillam pugnas? O Titus, why do you fight the slave girl?). Though widely used, it differs in form from the nominative only in the masculine singular of the second declension (that is, never in the plural, never in the feminine or neuter, and never in any declension other than the second).
The locative case is rare in Latin.
, vocative
, accusative
, genitive
, dative
, ablative
, locative
and instrumental
. Some count vocative not as a separate case, despite it having a distinctive ending in the singular, but consider it as a different use of the nominative.
Sanskrit
grammatical case was analyzed extensively. The grammarian Pāṇini identified six semantic role
s or karaka, which are related to the eight grammatical cases, but not in a one-to-one way. The six karaka are:
For example, consider the following sentence:
Here leaf is the agent, tree is the source, and ground is the locus, the corresponding declensions are reflected in the morphemes -am -at and -au respectively.
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
, declension is the inflection
Inflection
In grammar, inflection or inflexion is the modification of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, aspect, person, number, gender and case...
of noun
Noun
In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
s, pronoun
Pronoun
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun , such as, in English, the words it and he...
s, adjective
Adjective
In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
s, and articles
Article (grammar)
An article is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. Articles specify the grammatical definiteness of the noun, in some languages extending to volume or numerical scope. The articles in the English language are the and a/an, and some...
to indicate number
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
(at least singular and plural), case
Grammatical case
In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun is an inflectional form that indicates its grammatical function in a phrase, clause, or sentence. For example, a pronoun may play the role of subject , of direct object , or of possessor...
(nominative or subjective
Nominative case
The nominative case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or the predicate noun or predicate adjective, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments...
, genitive or possessive
Genitive case
In grammar, genitive is the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun...
, etc.), and gender
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
. A declension is also a group of nouns that follow a particular pattern of inflection.
Declension occurs in many of the world's languages, and features very prominently in many European languages. Old English was a highly inflected language, as befitting its Indo-European
Indo-European
Indo-European may refer to:* Indo-European languages** Aryan race, a 19th century and early 20th century term for those peoples who are the native speakers of Indo-European languages...
and especially its Germanic
Germanic languages
The Germanic languages constitute a sub-branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all of the languages in this branch is called Proto-Germanic , which was spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
linguistic ancestry, but its declensions greatly simplified as it evolved into Modern English
Modern English
Modern English is the form of the English language spoken since the Great Vowel Shift in England, completed in roughly 1550.Despite some differences in vocabulary, texts from the early 17th century, such as the works of William Shakespeare and the King James Bible, are considered to be in Modern...
.
Modern English
In Modern EnglishModern English
Modern English is the form of the English language spoken since the Great Vowel Shift in England, completed in roughly 1550.Despite some differences in vocabulary, texts from the early 17th century, such as the works of William Shakespeare and the King James Bible, are considered to be in Modern...
, nouns have distinct singular and plural forms; that is, they decline to reflect their grammatical number. (Consider the difference between book and books.) In addition, a small number of English pronouns have distinct nominative and objective forms; that is, they decline to reflect their relationship to a verb
Verb
A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...
or preposition. (Consider the difference between he (nominative) and him (dative or accusative), as in "He saw it" and "It saw him".) Further, these pronouns and a few others have distinct possessive forms, such as his. By contrast, nouns have no distinct nominative and objective forms, the two being merged into a single plain case. For example, chair does not change form between "the chair is here" (subject) and "I saw the chair" (direct object). Possession is shown by the clitic
Clitic
In morphology and syntax, a clitic is a morpheme that is grammatically independent, but phonologically dependent on another word or phrase. It is pronounced like an affix, but works at the phrase level...
-'s attached to a possessive noun phrase
Noun phrase
In grammar, a noun phrase, nominal phrase, or nominal group is a phrase based on a noun, pronoun, or other noun-like word optionally accompanied by modifiers such as adjectives....
, rather than by declension of the noun itself.
Gender is at best only weakly grammaticalized in Modern English. While masculine, feminine, and neuter genders are recognized, nouns do not normally decline for gender, though some nouns, especially Latin words and personal names, exist in multiple forms corresponding to different genders: Alumnus (male, singular)/Alumna (female, singular); Andrew/Andrea, Paul/Paula, etc. Suffixes such as -ess, -ette, and -er can also derive overtly gendered versions of nouns, with marking for feminine being much more common than marking for masculine. Many nouns can actually function as members of two genders or even all three, and the gender classes of English nouns are usually determined by their agreement with pronouns, rather than marking on the nouns themselves.
Adjectives are rarely declined for any purpose. They can be declined for number when they are used as substitutes for nouns (as in, "I'll take the reds", meaning "I'll take the red ones" or as shorthand for "I'll take the red wines", for example). Some adjectives borrowed from other languages are, or can be, declined for gender, at least in writing: blond (male) and blonde (female) or a bonie lad as compared to a bonnie lass. Adjectives are not declined for case in Modern English, though they were in Old English.
The article is never regarded as declined in Modern English, although technically the words this and that, and their plural forms these and those, are modern forms of the as it was declined in Old English. Certain non-standard regional and economic class-associated dialects do decline the article, either in regular speech or in slang - as in expressions such as "How do you like them apples?" and "Oh, them are nice!" (instead of "those").
Latin
An example of a LatinLatin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
noun declension is given below, using the singular forms of the word homo (man), which belongs to Latin's third declension.
(nominative
Nominative case
The nominative case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or the predicate noun or predicate adjective, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments...
) "[the] man" [as a subject] (e.g., the man is standing there) (genitive
Genitive case
In grammar, genitive is the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun...
) "of [the] man" [as a possessor] (e.g., the man's name is Claudius) (dative
Dative case
The dative case is a grammatical case generally used to indicate the noun to whom something is given, as in "George gave Jamie a drink"....
) "to [the] man" [as an indirect object] (e.g., I gave a present to the man; Man is a wolf to man.) (accusative
Accusative case
The accusative case of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. The same case is used in many languages for the objects of prepositions...
) "[the] man" [as a direct object] (e.g., toward the man, in the sense of argument directed personally; I saw the man) (ablative
Ablative case
In linguistics, ablative case is a name given to cases in various languages whose common characteristic is that they mark motion away from something, though the details in each language may differ...
) "[the] man" [in various uses not covered by the above] (e.g., I am taller than the man).
There are two further noun cases in Latin, the vocative and the locative.
The vocative case indicates that a person or thing is being addressed (e.g., O Tite, cur ancillam pugnas? O Titus, why do you fight the slave girl?). Though widely used, it differs in form from the nominative only in the masculine singular of the second declension (that is, never in the plural, never in the feminine or neuter, and never in any declension other than the second).
The locative case is rare in Latin.
Sanskrit
Sanskrit has eight cases: nominativeNominative case
The nominative case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or the predicate noun or predicate adjective, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments...
, vocative
Vocative case
The vocative case is the case used for a noun identifying the person being addressed and/or occasionally the determiners of that noun. A vocative expression is an expression of direct address, wherein the identity of the party being spoken to is set forth expressly within a sentence...
, accusative
Accusative case
The accusative case of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. The same case is used in many languages for the objects of prepositions...
, genitive
Genitive case
In grammar, genitive is the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun...
, dative
Dative case
The dative case is a grammatical case generally used to indicate the noun to whom something is given, as in "George gave Jamie a drink"....
, ablative
Ablative case
In linguistics, ablative case is a name given to cases in various languages whose common characteristic is that they mark motion away from something, though the details in each language may differ...
, locative
Locative case
Locative is a grammatical case which indicates a location. It corresponds vaguely to the English prepositions "in", "on", "at", and "by"...
and instrumental
Instrumental case
The instrumental case is a grammatical case used to indicate that a noun is the instrument or means by or with which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action...
. Some count vocative not as a separate case, despite it having a distinctive ending in the singular, but consider it as a different use of the nominative.
Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
grammatical case was analyzed extensively. The grammarian Pāṇini identified six semantic role
Thematic role
Thematic role is a linguistic notion, which may refer to:* Theta role * Thematic relation...
s or karaka, which are related to the eight grammatical cases, but not in a one-to-one way. The six karaka are:
- agent (kartri, related to the nominative)
- patient (karman, related to the accusative)
- means (karaṇa, related to the instrumental)
- recipient (sampradāna, related to the dative)
- source (apādāna, related to the ablative)
- locus (adhikaraṇa, related to the locative)
For example, consider the following sentence:
| vrikśh |
parṇ |
bhūm |
patati |
| a leaf | falls | ||
| "a leaf falls from the tree to the ground" | |||
Here leaf is the agent, tree is the source, and ground is the locus, the corresponding declensions are reflected in the morphemes -am -at and -au respectively.
Declension in specific languages
- Basque declension
- Czech declensionCzech declensionCzech declension describes the declension, or system of grammatically-determined modifications, in nouns, adjectives, pronouns and numerals in the Czech language. There is a system of 7 cases in Czech...
- Dutch declension system
- Finnish language noun casesFinnish language noun casesFinnish nouns as well as any modifying adjectives, superlatives or comparatives, can be declined by a large number of grammatical cases, which are detailed here. See also Finnish grammar....
- German declensionGerman declensionGerman declension is the paradigm that German uses to define all the ways words can change shape to reflect their role in the sentence: subject, object, etc...
- Greek declension
- Icelandic declensionIcelandic languageIcelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the...
- Irish declension
- Latin declensionLatin declensionLatin is an inflected language, and as such has nouns, pronouns, and adjectives that must be declined in order to serve a grammatical function. A set of declined forms of the same word pattern is called a declension. There are five declensions, which are numbered and grouped by ending and...
- Lithuanian declensionLithuanian declensionDeclension in the Lithuanian language is quite sophisticated in a way similar to declensions in ancient Indo-European languages, such as Sanskrit, Latin or Ancient Greek. It also is one of the most complicated declension systems among modern Indo-European and modern European...
- Middle English declension
- Old English declension
- Polish declension
- Russian declensionRussian grammarRussian grammar encompasses:* a highly synthetic morphology* a syntax that, for the literary language, is the conscious fusion of three elements:** a Church Slavonic inheritance;...
- Serbian declension
- Slovak declensionSlovak declensionThe Slovak language, like most Slavic and Latin languages, is an inflected language, meaning that the endings of most words change depending on the given combination of the grammatical gender, the grammatical number and the grammatical case of the particular word in the particular sentence:a)...
- Slovenian declension
- Ukrainian declensionUkrainian grammarThe Ukrainian language possesses an extremely rich grammatical structure inherited from Indo-European:*Nouns have grammatical gender, number, and are declined for 7 cases;*Adjectives agree with the noun in case, number, and gender;...
Related topics
- Grammatical caseGrammatical caseIn grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun is an inflectional form that indicates its grammatical function in a phrase, clause, or sentence. For example, a pronoun may play the role of subject , of direct object , or of possessor...
- Grammatical conjugationGrammatical conjugationIn linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb from its principal parts by inflection . Conjugation may be affected by person, number, gender, tense, aspect, mood, voice, or other grammatical categories...
- InflectionInflectionIn grammar, inflection or inflexion is the modification of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, aspect, person, number, gender and case...
- Paradigm
- Strong inflectionStrong inflectionA strong inflection is a system of verb conjugation or noun/adjective declension which can be contrasted with an alternative system in the same language, which is then known as a weak inflection. The term strong was coined with reference to the Germanic verb, but has since been used of other...
- Weak inflectionWeak inflectionIn grammar, the term weak is used in opposition to the term strong to designate a conjugation or declension when a language has two parallel systems...
External links
- The Status of Morphological Case in the Icelandic Lexicon by Eiríkur Rögnvaldsson. Discussion of whether cases convey any inherent syntactic or semantic meaning.
- Optimal Case: The Distribution of Case in German and Icelandic by Dieter Wunderlich
- Lexicon of Linguistics: Declension
- Lexicon of Linguistics: Base, Stem, Root
- Lexicon of Linguistics: Defective Paradigm
- Lexicon of Linguistics: Strong Verb
- Lexicon of Linguistics: Inflection Phrase (IP), INFL, AGR, Tense
- Lexicon of Linguistics: Lexicalist Hypothesis
- classical Greek declension