1 Overview 1
1.1 Inflectional case 1
1.2 Other manifestations 7
1.3 Competing mechanisms 12
2 Problems in describing case systems 18
2.1 The traditional analysis 18
2.2 Distinguishing cases 19
2.3 Meanings and functions 29
3 Modern approaches to case 47
3.1 Introduction 47
3.2 Grammatical relations 48
3.3 Abstract case 57
3.4 Semantic roles and grammatical relations 62
3.5 Hierarchies 86
4 Distribution of case marking 93
4.1 Introduction 93
4.2 Within the clause 93
4.3 Within the noun phrase 96
4.4 Within the word 104
4.5 Within the subordinate clause 109
5 Survey of case marking 118
5.1 Introduction 118
5.2 Organisation of the core 118
5.3 Dative 142
5.4 Genitive 149
5.5 Partitive 151
5.6 Local cases 151
5.7 Other cases 154
5.8 Inflectional case hierarchy 155
6 Life cycle of case systems 161
6.1 Origin 161
6.2 Developments within case systems 167
6.3 Loss of case marking 175
6.4 Derived functions of case marking 180
6.5 Finale 183
Notes 184
Guide to terminology 195
Guide to further reading 207
References 208
Author index 219
Language index 222
Subject index 225