Instrumental case
Encyclopedia
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. The noun may be either a physical object or an abstract concept.
sentence:
Here, the inflection
of the noun indicates its instrumental role the nominative
перо changes its ending to become пером.
In Modern English
, the word why is one instance of an etymologically instrumental declension
. Though not commonly known to be of pronominal origin, it was, in fact, inherited from Old English hwȳ, which was the declension of hwæt (now what) in the Old English instrumental case a grammatical feature rare even in Old English. The modern instrumental case (as present in why) does not bear the meaning of instrument, but of purpose, cause, or reason: rather, the closely related form how is used to express instrument, way, or means. In nominal use, Modern English expresses the instrumental meaning by use of adverbial phrases that begin with the words with, by, or using then followed by the noun indicating the instrument:
Technical descriptions often use the phrase "by means of", which is similar to "by use of", as in:
This can be replaced by "via", which is a Latin instrumental ablative
of the nominative (viā) via, meaning road, route, or way. In the ablative this means by way of. The English suffix "-wise", meaning way, performs the same function, although in most cases it would be reserved for poetic effect:
The above sentence structures, however, can be altogether avoided in English by transforming the noun into a past-tense verb, e.g. "I penned the note."
The instrumental case appears in Old English
, Old Saxon, Georgian
, Basque
, Sanskrit
, and the Balto-Slavic languages
. An instrumental/comitative case
is arguably present in Turkish
and other Altaic languages, as well as in Tamil
. Also, Uralic languages reuse the adessive case
where available, locative case
if not, to mark the same category, or comitative case
(Estonian
). For example, the Finnish
kirjoitan kynällä does not mean "I write on a pen", but "I write using a pen", even if the adessive -llä is used. In Ob-Ugric languages, the same category may also mark agents with verbs that use an ergative alignment, like "I give you, using a pen".
The instrumental case is most notably used in Russian, where the case is called творительный падеж (tvoritelnij padezh). In most declension paradigms, the instrumental case in Russian can generally be distinguished by the -ом ("-om") suffix for most masculine and neuter nouns, the -ою/-oй ("-oyu"/"-oy") suffix for most feminine nouns and -ами ("-ami") for any of the three genders in the plural.
However, in Russian, as with many Slavic languages
, the instrumental case is not only used to denote the means of a certain action, but also:
Though the instrumental case does not exist in many languages, some languages use other cases to denote the means, or instrument, of an action. In Classical Greek, for example, the dative case
is used as the instrumental case. This can be seen in the sentence "," or "..me ktenei dolôi" (Book IX, line 407 of the Odyssey
), which means "he kills me with a bait". Here, "," the dative of "δόλος" ("dolos" - a bait) is used as the instrumental case (the means or instrument here is, obviously, the bait). In Latin the instrumental case has merged with the ablative, thus the ablative case has the same functions. For example, "ipso facto" can be translated as 'by the fact itself'; the ablative case
can also be used, as in oculīs vidēre, "to see with the eyes".
, the functions of the Proto-Indo-European
instrumental case were taken over by the dative
, so that the dative has functions belonging to the Proto-Indo-European dative, instrumental, and locative
. This is the case with the bare dative, and the dative with the preposition σύν sýn "with".
is denoted by the -ով (-ov) suffix to say that an action is done by, with or through an agent.
While the Instrumental case is the form most commonly used for this purpose, when coupled with the Passive voice
in Armenian the Instrumental case can be replaced with the Ablative case
.
, where it serves several purposes. The main purpose is the same as the above, i.e. the means with which an action occurs. It has a role in the -(t)at- causative
form of verbs, that is, the form of a verb that shows the subject caused someone else to action the verb. In this sense, the instrumental case is used to mark the person that was caused to execute the verb. It is also used to quantify or qualify words such as better or ago, such as sokkal jobban (much better, literally 'with-much better'); hét évvel ezelőtt (seven years ago, literally 'seven with-years before this').
In Hungarian the instrumental and comitative case
look the same, see Instrumental-comitative case
.
See the links section below for a more detailed article.
does not have a separate instrumental case, but the adessive case
(-lla/-llä) is used instead, even though the adessive literally means "on top". For example, vasaralla "using a hammer" (instrumental meaning) or "on a hammer" (locative meaning).
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...
used to indicate that a noun is the instrument or means by or with which the subject
Subject (grammar)
The subject is one of the two main constituents of a clause, according to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle and that is associated with phrase structure grammars; the other constituent is the predicate. According to another tradition, i.e...
achieves or accomplishes an action. The noun may be either a physical object or an abstract concept.
General discussion
The instrumental case appears in this RussianRussian grammar
Russian grammar encompasses:* a highly synthetic morphology* a syntax that, for the literary language, is the conscious fusion of three elements:** a Church Slavonic inheritance;...
sentence:
| Я | написал | письмо | пером. |
| Ya | napisal | pis'mo | perom. |
| "I | wrote | (the) letter | with a quill pen." |
Here, 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 the noun indicates its instrumental role the 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...
перо changes its ending to become пером.
In Modern English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, the word why is one instance of an etymologically instrumental declension
Declension
In linguistics, declension is the inflection of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and articles to indicate number , case , and gender...
. Though not commonly known to be of pronominal origin, it was, in fact, inherited from Old English hwȳ, which was the declension of hwæt (now what) in the Old English instrumental case a grammatical feature rare even in Old English. The modern instrumental case (as present in why) does not bear the meaning of instrument, but of purpose, cause, or reason: rather, the closely related form how is used to express instrument, way, or means. In nominal use, Modern English expresses the instrumental meaning by use of adverbial phrases that begin with the words with, by, or using then followed by the noun indicating the instrument:
- I wrote the note with a pen.
- I wrote the note (by) using a pen.
Technical descriptions often use the phrase "by means of", which is similar to "by use of", as in:
- I wrote the note by means of a pen.
- I wrote the note by use of a pen.
This can be replaced by "via", which is a Latin instrumental 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...
of the nominative (viā) via, meaning road, route, or way. In the ablative this means by way of. The English suffix "-wise", meaning way, performs the same function, although in most cases it would be reserved for poetic effect:
- I wrote the note penwise.
The above sentence structures, however, can be altogether avoided in English by transforming the noun into a past-tense verb, e.g. "I penned the note."
The instrumental case appears in Old English
Old English language
Old English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England and southeastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century...
, Old Saxon, Georgian
Georgian language
Georgian is the native language of the Georgians and the official language of Georgia, a country in the Caucasus.Georgian is the primary language of about 4 million people in Georgia itself, and of another 500,000 abroad...
, Basque
Basque language
Basque is the ancestral language of the Basque people, who inhabit the Basque Country, a region spanning an area in northeastern Spain and southwestern France. It is spoken by 25.7% of Basques in all territories...
, 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...
, and the Balto-Slavic languages
Balto-Slavic languages
The Balto-Slavic language group traditionally comprises Baltic and Slavic languages, belonging to the Indo-European family of languages. Baltic and Slavic languages share several linguistic traits not found in any other Indo-European branch, which points to the period of common development...
. An instrumental/comitative case
Comitative case
The comitative case , also known as the associative case , is a grammatical case that denotes companionship, and is used where English would use "in company with" or "together with"...
is arguably present in Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
and other Altaic languages, as well as in Tamil
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
. Also, Uralic languages reuse the adessive case
Adessive case
In Uralic languages, such as Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian, the adessive case is the fourth of the locative cases with the basic meaning of "on". For example, Estonian laud and laual , Hungarian asztal and asztalnál...
where available, locative case
Locative case
Locative is a grammatical case which indicates a location. It corresponds vaguely to the English prepositions "in", "on", "at", and "by"...
if not, to mark the same category, or comitative case
Comitative case
The comitative case , also known as the associative case , is a grammatical case that denotes companionship, and is used where English would use "in company with" or "together with"...
(Estonian
Estonian language
Estonian is the official language of Estonia, spoken by about 1.1 million people in Estonia and tens of thousands in various émigré communities...
). For example, the Finnish
Finnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
kirjoitan kynällä does not mean "I write on a pen", but "I write using a pen", even if the adessive -llä is used. In Ob-Ugric languages, the same category may also mark agents with verbs that use an ergative alignment, like "I give you, using a pen".
The instrumental case is most notably used in Russian, where the case is called творительный падеж (tvoritelnij padezh). In most declension paradigms, the instrumental case in Russian can generally be distinguished by the -ом ("-om") suffix for most masculine and neuter nouns, the -ою/-oй ("-oyu"/"-oy") suffix for most feminine nouns and -ами ("-ami") for any of the three genders in the plural.
However, in Russian, as with many Slavic languages
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
, the instrumental case is not only used to denote the means of a certain action, but also:
- to denote a time when an action occurs ("during"). For example, in the sentence "я работаю утром" (ya rabotayu utrom), which means "I work in the morning"; the word утро (utro, "morning") in its instrumental case denotes the time in which the action (in the case of this example, "working") takes place ("in the morning").
- to denote a change of status. For example, in the sentence "сегодня я стал американским гражданином" (sevodnya ya stal amerikanskim grazhdaninom), which means "Today I became an American citizen," the word гражданин (grazhdanin, "citizen") is used in the instrumental case because it denotes a change of status (in this case, possibly from an immigrant to a citizen). However, it's not exclusively used with стать (stat', "to become"), but also other verbs too. For example, "сегодня я проснулся больным" (sevodnya ya prosnulsya bol'nym) means "I woke up sick today" ("больным" is the instrumental of "больной" (bol'noi), "sick").
- to emphasize an attribute or profession, where in English "as" would be used. For example, "Я работаю переводчиком" (Ya rabotayu perevodchikom) means "I work as a translator" (contrast this with "я - переводчик" (Ya - perevodchik), which means "I'm a translator").
- (Logically speaking, the profession is the means by which one does his or her job, hence the reason it's deployed in the instrumental case.)
- to denote the agent in a passive voice construction. E.g.: "Книга написана мною" ("The book was written by me"). Here, "мною" ("by me") is simply the instrumental case version of the pronoun "I, me", and the sentence is structured in the passive voice (as it also is in its English translation).
Though the instrumental case does not exist in many languages, some languages use other cases to denote the means, or instrument, of an action. In Classical Greek, for example, the dative case
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"....
is used as the instrumental case. This can be seen in the sentence "," or "..me ktenei dolôi" (Book IX, line 407 of the Odyssey
Odyssey
The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second—the Iliad being the first—extant work of Western literature...
), which means "he kills me with a bait". Here, "," the dative of "δόλος" ("dolos" - a bait) is used as the instrumental case (the means or instrument here is, obviously, the bait). In Latin the instrumental case has merged with the ablative, thus the ablative case has the same functions. For example, "ipso facto" can be translated as 'by the fact itself'; the ablative case
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...
can also be used, as in oculīs vidēre, "to see with the eyes".
Sanskrit
The instrumental case in Classical Sanskrit can have several meanings:- It can indicate the instrument (of an action):
- "Rāma writes with a pen".
- It can be used to indicate someone or something accompanying an action. In this case, the sense of "company" is indicated by postpositions like सह saha ("with") (may be optionally omitted):
- "Devadatta went accompanied by the servant".
- It can indicate the agent of a passive verb:
- "Barley is eaten by Devadatta".
- It can indicate the cause, reason or circumstance of an action. In this case, it can be translated as "because of", "out of", etc.:
- "He abandoned the village out of misery".
- It's used with the preposition विना vinā ("without"):
- "A lotus dies without water".
- It can also be used with the particles अलम् alam कृतम् kṛtam, both meaning "enough".
- "Enough with noise!".
Greek
In Ancient GreekAncient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
, the functions of the Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European language
The Proto-Indo-European language is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans...
instrumental case were taken over by the 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"....
, so that the dative has functions belonging to the Proto-Indo-European dative, instrumental, and locative
Locative case
Locative is a grammatical case which indicates a location. It corresponds vaguely to the English prepositions "in", "on", "at", and "by"...
. This is the case with the bare dative, and the dative with the preposition σύν sýn "with".
Czech
Just as above. The object with which the action is done or completed is declined. For example:- Píšu perem.
- psát = to write; píšu = I write
- pero = a pen → perem = with a pen
- Jedu do školy autobusem.
- jet = to go via transport (× jít = to go on foot); jedu = I go
- škola = school, do školy = to school (genitiveGenitive caseIn grammar, genitive is the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun...
) - autobus = a bus → autobusem = by bus
Armenian
The instrumental in ArmenianArmenian language
The Armenian language is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenian people. It is the official language of the Republic of Armenia as well as in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The language is also widely spoken by Armenian communities in the Armenian diaspora...
is denoted by the -ով (-ov) suffix to say that an action is done by, with or through an agent.
- մատիտ (matit, pencil) → մատիտով (matitov, with/by a pencil)
- մատիտով գրի (matitov gri) Write with a pencil.
While the Instrumental case is the form most commonly used for this purpose, when coupled with the Passive voice
Passive voice
Passive voice is a grammatical voice common in many of the world's languages. Passive is used in a clause whose subject expresses the theme or patient of the main verb. That is, the subject undergoes an action or has its state changed. A sentence whose theme is marked as grammatical subject is...
in Armenian the Instrumental case can be replaced with the Ablative case
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...
.
Hungarian
The instrumental case is present in the Hungarian languageHungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
, where it serves several purposes. The main purpose is the same as the above, i.e. the means with which an action occurs. It has a role in the -(t)at- causative
Causative
In linguistics, a causative is a form that indicates that a subject causes someone or something else to do or be something, or causes a change in state of a non-volitional event....
form of verbs, that is, the form of a verb that shows the subject caused someone else to action the verb. In this sense, the instrumental case is used to mark the person that was caused to execute the verb. It is also used to quantify or qualify words such as better or ago, such as sokkal jobban (much better, literally 'with-much better'); hét évvel ezelőtt (seven years ago, literally 'seven with-years before this').
In Hungarian the instrumental and comitative case
Comitative case
The comitative case , also known as the associative case , is a grammatical case that denotes companionship, and is used where English would use "in company with" or "together with"...
look the same, see Instrumental-comitative case
Instrumental-comitative case
This case in Hungarian language contains the Instrumental case and the Comitative case at the same time. It is similar to the English preposition with....
.
See the links section below for a more detailed article.
Finnish
FinnishFinnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
does not have a separate instrumental case, but the adessive case
Adessive case
In Uralic languages, such as Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian, the adessive case is the fourth of the locative cases with the basic meaning of "on". For example, Estonian laud and laual , Hungarian asztal and asztalnál...
(-lla/-llä) is used instead, even though the adessive literally means "on top". For example, vasaralla "using a hammer" (instrumental meaning) or "on a hammer" (locative meaning).
Sources
- Instrumental Case in Tamil language
- The Instrumental Case in Russian language
- What is instrumental case?
- Prepositions Governing the Instrumental Case in Russian
External links
- Instrumental case in Hungarian from HungarianReference.com
- Russian Instrumental: http://www.russianlessons.net/grammar/nouns_instrumental.php, http://www.russianresources.info/links.aspx/grammar/nouns/inst, http://www.learnrussian.net/learn-russian-instrumental-case.html