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9FORMAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GRAMMATICAL CASE IN ENGLISH AND KARAKALPAK LANGUAGES
Bekbergenov H.U.
Karakalpak State University named after Berdak https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10026529
Abstract. This article deals with formal characteristics of grammatical case endings in the English and Karakalpak languages. Types of cases in nouns, phonetic variants of case affixes and their spelling rules in the two languages have been analyzed through the related materials on the subject.
Keywords: noun, grammatical category, case, affix, phonetic variations.
Introduction. The category of case in nouns is a system of grammatical oppositions (such as girl-girl's in English, uy-uydin, uy-uyge, uy-uydi, uy-uyden, uy-uyde in Karakalpak) which shows the relation of nouns to other words in a sentence. The term "case" is from Latin "casus" (falling) which is in turn a translation of the Greek ptosis "fall(ing)" (cf. Russian падеж, from пад-"fall"). The idea seems to have been that of "falling away from an assumed standard form" [4]. In the Karakalpak language, the word case is called rather differently as seplik (i.e. declension) which comes from the verb seplew (=adding something to something) and grammatical case forms are built by adding special case suffixes to nouns or pronouns. Thus, the case form of the noun, or contractedly its "case" (in the narrow sense of the word), is a morphological-declensional form" [1:62-74]. As one of the Turkic languages, the Karakalpak language is an agglutinative language, which strictly relies on the suffixes (not prefixes) to organize complete speech patterns. According to Haimovich and Rogovskaya case is one of those categories which show the close connection (a) between language and speech (b) between morphology and syntax. In the sentence 'I bought John's car' the case of the noun John's shows its relation to the noun car, which is some reflection of the relations between John and his car in reality [3:60].
Main part
In English, the noun has two cases: the unmarked common case: boy in the singular, boys in the plural and the marked genitive case: boy's in the singular, boys' in the plural [6:318]. In the Karakalpak language, besides nominative and genitive, there are also four cases and the noun in Karakalpak consists of six cases (ataw-nominative, iyelik-genitive, baris-dative, tabis-accusative, shigis-ablative, orin-locative).
It should also be noted that all English nouns may contain two case oppositions at most (boy-boy's, boys-boys'). However, some lexemes (especially most inanimate nouns like book, news, table, etc) have no case oppositional forms. We cannot say for instance; table's leg. So, -'s morpheme is not applied for all English nouns. Nominative in Karakalpak is opposed to all the other cases and makes 10 oppositional pairs as in the table below.
The English equivalents of six cases of Karakalpak nouns are as follows:
№ Case/Seplik English Karakalpak
1 Nominative/Ataw city /cities qala/qalalar
2 Genitive/Iyelik city's / cities' qalanm/qalalardm
3 Dative/Baris to a/the city/to the cities qalaga/qalalarga
4 Accusative/Tabis a/the city/the cities qalani/qalalardi
5 Ablative/Shigis from a/the city, from (the) cities qaladan/qalalardan
6 Locative/Orin in a /the city/ in (the) cities qalada/qalalarda
Form ^ Inflectional, Positional, Prepositional. Inflectional
As it is clear from the table, the category of case in Karakalpak nouns is much more complex and developed than that of English nouns. All the cases in the Karakalpak language are inflectional except Nominative Case, while in English the only inflection is -'s morpheme. Thus -'s is the only positive case morpheme of English and whole category of case depends on this morpheme. Other case forms are expressed in the nominative form with or without preposition. It also shows that cases in Karakalpak are both morphological and syntactical, while in English syntax takes much responsibility. Karakalpak cases in noun have their own case endings and the addition of these endings to the noun called a declension. In most agglutinative languages the affixes can be attached to the end of the stem one after the other and follow the rules of declension. The order of declension is like this:
Noun + derivational affix + plural suffix + possessive suffix + case suffix: baliq+shi+lar+imiz+ga (for our fishermen)
As can be seen here, all other inflectional and derivational suffixes precede case endings. Case ending is always at the end. (in the above examples -ga is a dative case ending). Each case has their own form, meaning and syntactic function in a sentence. E.g.: Telefondi magan ber. Give me the cellphone.
Case system of Karakalpak noun and their affixes are as follows:
Cases Karakalpak English English
in Karakalpak case endings case endings equivalents Examples
1 Nomimative unmarked unmarked Nominative uy/a house
2 -nin / nin uydin/house's, of a
Genitive -din / din -tin / tin -'s and -' Genitive house
3 Accusative -ni / ni -di / di -ti / ti Nom. form uydi/a house
4 Dative -ga / ge -qa / ke - Nom. or preposition 'to' uyge/a house, to a house
5 -nan / nen - uyden/from /out of a
Ablative -dan / den -tan / ten from /out of (prep) house
6 Locative -da / de -ta / te - at\in\on, etc. uyde/in a house
26 case forms 2 case forms
As you can see, accusative case in Karakalpak, which takes special affix -di (telefondi) corresponds to English direct object (cellphone) which does not take any suffixes. The suffix of
accusative -di indicates a definite object, so the definite article is used to express its English equivalent.
Dative/Ablative/Locative case inflections in the Karakalpak language are capable of rendering a threefold local distinction: a directional (-ga (=to)), a static (-da (=at)) and a separate (-dan (=from)) meaning. Accordingly, these cases are called "Kenislik Seplikleri" (=spatial cases). Nominative, genitive and accusative cases are called grammatical cases.
I. The forms of genitive in English.
The genitive of regular nouns is realized in speech only in the singular, where it takes one of the forms [iz], [z], or [s], following the rules for the -s inflection of nouns and verbs of third person in the present simple. In writing, the inflection of regular nouns is realized in the singular by apostrophe + s (boy's), and in the regular plural by the apostrophe following the plural -s'
The pronunciations of plural, common case and plural genitive case with regular nouns are the same. They are distinguished only by apostrophe in writing. In speech, there are three ways of pronunciation of the genitive case.
1. [z] after vowels and voiced consonants: Pedro's, dog's, boy's, man's, China's
2. [s] after voiceless consonants: student's, Europe's, Pak's.
3. [iz] after sibilants: prince's, judge's, niece's, George's, Ross's.
Irregular plurals like 'children' preserve the genitive singular and genitive plural distinctions and both singular and plural genitive have the same inflection -'s: child - child's, children - children's, woman-woman's, women - women's.
Since the genitive adds nothing to a regular plural noun in speech, and nothing except the final apostrophe in writing, this plural genitive may be called the 'zero genitive.' Regular plurals such as boys, teachers, dogs, etc. are always used in 'zero genitive': boys', teachers', dogs'. In addition to its normal use with regular plurals, the zero genitive is used to avoid repetitive or awkward combinations of sounds in the following cases [6:320].
1. Greek names of more than one syllable which end in -s, as in classical names ending -s usually take only the apostrophe: Pythagoras' Theorem, Archimedes' Law, Sophocles' plays, Yeats' poems, Hercules' labour, Achilles' heel, Socrates' [sokrati:ziz] ideas, Xerxes' army.
2. Other names ending in -s can take -'s or the apostrophe alone. An apostrophe form is a usual spelling form. -'s form is pronounced as [iz], whereas the pronunciation of an apostrophe form is [z]. The [iz] form is the most common pronunciation. In the following examples, the minority forms are given in parenthesis:
James' ( James's) brother [^eimasiz (^eimas)] 3. Some fixed expressions of the form for...sake, where the noun ends in [s] take apostrophe only: for goodness' sake, for conscience ' sake. II. Case forms in the Karakalpak language
(boys').
As a result, the spoken form [flaiz] may realize three forms of the noun 'fly' as follows: The flies in the kitchen are enormous. [plural, common case] The fly's wings are so beautiful. [singular, genitive case]
The flies' life is very short. [Plural genitive case]
Written forms Jones' (Jones's) car Doris' (Doris's) house
Spoken forms [^aunziz (^aunz)] [dorisiz (doris)]
1) Genitive Case (Iyelik sepligi) answers the question Kimnin?, Nenin?, Kimlerdin?, Nelerdin? (Whose?) and denotes the belonging of one object to another. The meaning of possessiveness is conveyed by attaching the suffixes of the genitive case -nin/nin; -din/din; -tin/tin to the base and these affixes correspond to both affixes of the genitive case; -'s, 'of -' in the English language and follow the rules of sound harmony.
a) If the words end in vowels and sonorous sounds -m; -n; -n, then -nin/nin are added to a noun: adamnin balasi, oqiwshinin kitabi, haywannin turleri.
b) If the base of the word ends in -z, -j, -r, -y, -l, -w, then we add -din/din: Asqardin uyi, maldin jemi, uydin terezesi, gazdin mayegi, tajdin suwreti, tawdin basi, etc.
c) If the noun ends in the voiceless consonants -p, -f, -t, -k and voiced consonants -b, -v, -g, -d, then we add -tin\tin: Gayrattin akesi, haktin qaynawi, shkaftin qapisi.
The genitive plural has only two forms -lardin and -lerdin. Since the -r sound harmonize only with the case forms -din and -din as we have just mentioned in section 2 above, the plural inflections (which end in -r sound: -lar and -ler) take the case affixes -din and -din: balalardin, mugallimlerdin (children's, teachers').
In Karakalpak, the nouns in the genitive case are used in two forms: with affix or without it, i.e. the endings of the genitive case are sometimes omitted, but the possessive ending of the III - person (-si, si, -i, -i) of the possessed nouns is always preserved.
Mektep direktori or Mekteptin direktori (both means the director of a school) Mektep direktor
This use arouses controversy among scholars. Some linguists give more weight to the form and regard the form without affix as a nominative case. However, in fact, in the phrases "makemenin basligi - makeme basligi' there is no difference in meaning between the two phrases [36, 129]. Therefore, more importance should be given to the semantic features when categorizing the case system. The genitive plural has only two forms lardin/lerdin
2) Tabis sepligi (Accusative Case): In Karakalpak, another term for the direct object is accusative case because it functions as the object of a verb in a sentence and answers the questions Kimdi?/Neni? (Whom?/What). Special affixes for this case are -di/di, -ti/ti, -ni/ni, and -n. These affixes, in turn, comply with the rules of both vowel and consonant harmony, i.e. they depend on whether the last syllable consists of back or front vowel as well as on voicedness and voicelessness of the consonants. The spellings of these affixes are as follows:
a) After vowels - ni/ni is attached.
If the word ends in one of the back vowels a, i, o, u then we add -ni, and after front vowels a, e, i, o, u -ni is used respectively: - ni: balani, salini; - ni: kdsheni, terini.
Note: Karakalpak language has hardly any words which end in such vowels as a, o, o, u, and u, except for loan words such as Edgar Po, kenguru, etc., so we use - ni after -a, -i, and -ni after -e, -i as in the above example. Although the word "kenguru" ends in vowel sound -u, the accusative case form is kengurudi not kenguruni.
b) After voiced consonants j, l, m, n, z, r, w: - di/di is added.
If the last syllable consists of back vowels (a, i, o, u), then the words take the affix - di: gazdi, paldi, tawdi, nandi, qardi, mindi, sindi, shordi, duzdi, qumdi.
If the last syllable consists of front vowels (a, e, i, o, u) and the words ending in voiced consonants take -di: kandi, kepterdi, guzdi.
c) The affix —ti/ti is preferred after voiceless consonants (p, t, k, q, f) and after some voiced consonants (b, v, g, d from loan words): kitapti, qaraqalpaqti, galstukti, klubti. Plural forms of accusative case are -lardi and -lerdi: balalardi, tereklerdi (children, trees). In English accusative meanings are rendered by common case form.
3) Baris Sepligi (Dative Case): The dative case in Karakalpak corresponds to the English Nominative case with a preposition "to" or without any prepositions and are usually followed by dative verbs like barw (go), beriw (give), jiberiw (sent), aytiw (tell), uzatiw (hand), etc. Normally the words in the dative case indicate the direction of the subject to someone or something and answer questions: kimge? - to whom?, nege? - to what?, qayerge? -where?
Olar Lauraga priz berdi.
They gave Laura a prize (without prep.).
They gave a prize to Laura (with preposition). The dative case is formed by the following endings: -ga/ge, -qa/ke, -na/ne, and-a/e. Both -ga and -ge come after vowels and sonorous sounds l, m, n, n, j, r, z, y, w : balaga, inige, gazga, Srajga, anga tawga, shamga, qaratalga, Rimge, Parijge.
Additionally, there is also a difference between -ga/ge, -qa/ke, -na/ne, -a/e depending on the vowel sounds in the last syllable of the words.
-ga is used after syllables having the vowels a, i, o, u: balalarga, awilga, traktorga. -ge is used if the last syllable contains a, e, i, u, o: kange, ekige, birge, gulge, kolge. -qa/ke comes after voiceless consonants p, q, t, f, k and voiced consonants b, v, g, d: kitapqa, sabaqqa, polatqa, skafqa, Volgagradqa, klubqa, Bazarbayevqa. -ke is applied when the last syllable contains one of these sounds: a, e, i, u, o: shelekke, Kievke, pilikke, mektepke.
Dative plurals are -larga //-lerge: oqiwshilarga, mekteplerge (to (the) students, to (the) schools).
In Turkic synharmonizm, the sound -g requires back vowels (a,i,o,u), whereas -g (voiced counterpart of g) can only comes with front vowels (a,e,i,u,o).
-na/ne after the possessive form of the third person singular (-si/-si,-i/-i) or plural - lari/leri: balasina, balalarina, enesine, qizina, kozine, kozlerine.
-a/e is attached after the 1st and 2nd person singular of the form of possessiveness: balam - balama (my son-(to) my son), balan - balana (your son- (to) your son), uken - ukene (your little brother-(to) your little brother).
In these last examples, the words balama, balana and ukene may be divided into three morphemes: bala-m-a; bala-n-a and uke-n-e and each morpheme has their special meanings because we can separate balama / balana / ukene into three different words such as bala/balam/balama (son-my son-to my son); bala/balan/balana (son-your son-to your son) and uke/uken/ukene.
In Karakalpak, both vowels/consonants at the end of a word and vowel types in the last syllable play a great role to build case forms, on the other hand, in English, case morpheme depends only the last sound of a word.
Orin sepligi (Locative case): In grammar, the locative case is a grammatical case, which indicates a location. It answers the questions "Kimde?/Nede?/Qayda? and corresponds vaguely to the English prepositions "in", "on", "at", and "by."
The locative case in Karakalpak is generally specified by the suffix "-da". For instance, in Karakalpak, mektep means the school, and mektepte means in the school. The morpheme may exist in four different forms, depending on the preceding consonant and vowel. The first phoneme of the locative, "d" changes according to the previous consonant: it is "t" after voiceless consonants and "d" elsewhere. The vowel changes depending on the phonetic characteristics of the previous vowel: it is "a" after a preceding back vowel, "e" after a preceding front vowel, congruent with the vowel harmony of the language. This gives four different versions of the morpheme:
-ta, as in "kitapta", "in the book". -te, as in "sdzlikte", "in the dictionary ". -da, as in "qalada", "in the city". -de, as in "bolmede", "in the room". Furthermore, Karakalpak nouns frequently utilize a possessive affix to indicate a relationship between the object and its owner. When forming the locative case of a noun in the presence of a possessive affix, there are possible endings for each person:
For first person: -mda/mde/imda/imde -qaltamda, kitabimda, bolmemde, elimde. For second person: -nda/inda/nde/inde - senin qaltanda, senin, kitabinda. For third person: -sinda/sinde/inda/inde - onin qaltasinda, onin kitabinda. -nda, as in "Ernazardin qalasinda." (in Ernazar's city) -nde, as in "Ernazardin bdlmesinde."(in Ernazar's room) Besides location, the locative case also indicates time and means. Oktyabrde (in October), saat ushte (at 3 o'clock), poezdda (by train) Plural locative is expressed by two affixes -larda and -lerde.
Shigis sepligi (Ablative case): The ablative case in Karakalpak is used to indicate movement away from something or removal and separation. In English grammar, it corresponds roughly to the use of prepositions "of", "from", and "out of". The meaning of the ablative in Karakalpak is expressed through the suffixes -dan/den, -nan/nen, and -tan/ten. Ablative plurals are -lardan and -lerden. Conclusion
We can conclude that formal features of the case system in the two languages compared are completely different from each other. The Karakalpak language possesses 26 case forms including phonetic variation, whereas English has 2. The affixation of case in Karakalpak relies on both syllabic and sound harmony, in English, on the other hand, depends on the last sound. There is also one more type of case in Karakalpak which is called possessive declension (tartimli sepleniw). English has no special possessive forms of nouns which can indicate possessive declension.
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