Dative case
Encyclopedia
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".
In general, the dative marks the indirect object of a verb
, although in some instances the dative is used for the direct object of a verb pertaining directly to an act of giving something. In Russian
, Hebrew, and Swiss German
, for example, the verb "to call (by telephone)" is always followed by a noun in the dative.
The thing being given may be a tangible object, such as "a book" or "a pen", or it may be an intangible abstraction, such as "an answer" or "help".
In some languages, the dative case has assimilated the functions of other now-extinct cases. In Ancient Greek
, the dative has the functions of the Proto-Indo-European
locative
and instrumental
as well as those of the original dative.
Sometimes the dative has functions unrelated to giving. In Scottish Gaelic
and Irish
, the term dative case is misleadingly used in traditional grammars to refer to the prepositional case
-marking of nouns following simple prepositions and the definite article. In Georgian
, the dative case also marks the subject of the sentence in some verbs and some tenses. This is also called the dative construction
.
The dative was common among early Indo-European languages
and has survived to the present in the Balto-Slavic
branch and the Germanic
branch, among others. It also exists in similar forms in several non-Indo-European languages, such as the Uralic
family of languages, Altaic
family of languages and Japanese
(sometimes considered as Altaic).
Under the influence of English, which uses the preposition "to" for both indirect objects (give to) and directions of movement (go to), the term "dative" has sometimes been used to describe cases that in other languages would more appropriately be called lative
.
cāsus datīvus, meaning "case for giving", a translation of Greek "inflection for giving", from its use with the verb didónai "to give". Dionysius Thrax
in his Art of Grammar
also refers to it as "for sending (a letter)", from the verb epistéllō "send to", a word from the same root as epistle
.
, current until approximately sometime after the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066, had a dative case; however, the English case system gradually fell into disuse during the Middle English
period, when the accusative and dative pronouns merged into a single objective
pronoun used in both roles. This merging of accusative and dative functionality in Middle and Modern English has led most modern grammarians to discard the "accusative" and "dative" labels in English as obsolete, in favor of the term "objective".
The dative case also survives, albeit rarely, in the ethic dative, used to express one's interest in a matter. This only occurs with pronouns. For instance, in the sentence, "Cry me a river," "me" is used to express the speaker's interest in the action.
is a remnant of the dative case in English, descending from the Old English dative pronoun "hwām" (as opposed to the nominative "who", which descends from Old English "hwā") — though "whom" also absorbed the functions of the Old English accusative
pronoun "hwone".
Likewise, "him" is a remnant of both the Old English dative "him" and accusative "hine", "her" serves for both Old English dative "hire" and accusative "hīe", etc.
of "to" or "for". If there is a direct object, the indirect object can be expressed by an objective pronoun placed between the verb and the direct object. For example, "He gave that to me" and "He built a snowman for me" are the same as "He gave me that" and "He built me a snowman". Here, the objective pronoun "me" has the same function as a dative pronoun in a language that distinguishes accusative and dative cases.
sentence. Certain German prepositions require the dative: aus, außer, bei, mit, nach, seit, von, zu, and gegenüber. Other prepositions (an, auf, hinter, in, neben, über, unter, vor, and zwischen) may be used with dative (indicating current location), or accusative (indicating direction toward something). Das Buch liegt auf dem Tisch (dative: the book is lying on the table), but Ich lege das Buch auf den Tisch (accusative: I put the book on the table). In addition, those German prepositions that require the genitive in formal language tend to be used with the dative in contemporary colloquial German; for example, "because of the weather" is often expressed as "wegen dem Wetter" instead of the formally correct "wegen des Wetters".
Note that the concept of an indirect object may be rendered by a prepositional phrase. In this case, the noun's or pronoun's case is determined by the preposition, NOT by its function in the sentence. Consider this sentence:
Here, the subject
, Ich, is in the nominative case
, the direct object, das Buch, is in the accusative case
, and zum Verleger is in the dative case, since zu always requires the dative (zum is a contraction of zu + dem). However:
In this sentence, Freund would seem to be the indirect object, but, because it follows an (direction), the accusative is required, not the dative.
All of the articles change in the dative case.
Some German verbs require the dative for their direct objects. Common examples include folgen, helfen, and antworten. In each case, the direct object of the verb is rendered in dative. For example:
The dative case is also used with reflexive (sich) verbs when specifying what part of the self the verb is being done to:
Cf. the respective accord in French
: "Les enfants se sont lavés" (the children have washed themselves) vs. "Les enfants se sont lavé" [unflected] "les mains" (... their hands).
Adjective endings also change in the dative case. Another factor that determines the endings of adjectives is whether the adjective is being used after a definite article (the), after an indefinite article (a/an), or without any article before the adjective (many green apples).
, the dative case is used to indicate the indirect object of an action (that to which something is given, thrown, read, etc.). In the instance where a person is the goal of motion, dative is used instead of accusative
to indicate motion toward. This is usually achieved with the preposition "κ" + destination in dative case; К врачу, meaning 'to the doctor'.
Dative is also the necessary case taken by certain prepositions when expressing certain ideas. For instance, when the preposition по is used to mean "along", its object is always in dative case as with, По бокам, 'along the sides'.
Other Slavic languages apply the dative case (and the other cases) more or less the same way as does Russian, some languages may use the dative in other ways. The following examples are from Polish
:
Other kinds of dative case are also used in Serbo-Croatian language
: Dativus finalis (Titaniku u pomoć "to Titanic's rescue"), Dativus commodi/incommodi (Operi svojoj majci suđe "Wash the dishes for your mother"), Dativus possessivus (Ovcama je dlaka gusta "Sheeps' hair is thick"), Dativus ethicus (Шта ми ради Бони? "What is Boni doing? (I am especially interested in what it is)") and Dativus auctoris (Izgleda mi okej "It seems okay to me").
Unusual in other Indo-European branches but common among Slavic languages
, endings of nouns and adjectives are different. Other factors are gender and number. In some cases, the ending may not be obvious, even when those three factors are considered. That is, in Polish, syn ("son") and ojciec ("father") are both masculine singular nouns, but syn → synowi and ojciec → ojcu.
Lithuanian nouns preserve Indo-European inflections in the dative case fairly well: (o-stems) vaikas -> sg. vaikui, pl. vaikams; (ā-stems) ranka -> sg. rankai, pl. rankoms; (i-stems) viltis -> sg. vilčiai, pl. viltims; (u-stems) sūnus -> sg. sūnui, pl. sūnums; (consonant stems) vanduo -> sg. vandeniui, pl. vandenims.
Adjectives in the dative case receive pronominal endings (this might be the result of a more recent development): tas geras vaikas -> sg. tam geram vaikui, pl. tiems geriems vaikams.
The Dative case in Latvian underwent further simplifications - the original masculine endings of both nouns and adjectives have been replaced with pronominal inflections: tas vīrs -> sg. tam vīram, pl. tiem vīriem. Also, the final "s" in all Dative forms has been dropped. The only exception is personal pronouns in the plural: mums (to us), jums (to you). Note that in colloquial Lithuanian the final "s" in the Dative is often omitted, as well: time geriem vaikam.
In both Latvian and Lithuanian, the main function of the Dative case is to render the indirect object in a sentence: (lt) aš duodu vyrui knygą; (lv) es dodu [duodu] vīram grāmatu - I am giving a book to the man.
The Dative case can also be used with gerundives to indicate an action preceding or simultaneous with the main action in a sentence: (lt) jam įėjus, visi atsistojo - when he walked in, everybody stood up, lit. to him having walked in, all stood up; (lt) jai miegant, visi dirbo - while she slept, everybody was working, lit. to her sleeping, all were working.
In modern standard Lithuanian, Dative case is not required by prepositions, although in many dialects it is done frequently: (dial.) iki (+D) šiai dienai, (stand.) iki (+G) šios dienos - up until this day.
In Latvian, the dative case is taken by several prepositions in the singular and all prepositions in the plural (due to peculiar historical changes): sg. bez (+G) tevis (without thee) ~ pl. bez (+D) jums (without you); sg. pa (+A) ceļu (along the road) ~ pl. pa (+D) ceļiem (along the roads).
The most common use of the Dative in Armenian is to indicate the indirect object of an action.
In addition to showing the indirect object of an action, it also shows movement toward a place or direction.
It has two suffixes, -nak and -nek; the correct is selected by vowel harmony
. The personal dative pronouns follow the -nek version: nekem, neked, etc.
This case is also used to express "for" in certain circumstances, such as "I bought a gift for Mother".
In possessive constructions the nak/nek endings are also used but this is NOT the dative form (rather, the attributive or possessive case)
, the dative also takes the functions of the lative case
in marking the direction of an action. By some linguists, they are still regarded as two separate cases in those languages, although the suffixes are exactly the same for both cases. Other linguists list them separately only for the purpose of separating syntactic cases from locative cases. An example with the ditransitive verb "show" (literally: "make see") is given below:
The dative/lative is also used to indicate possession, as in the example below, because there is no such verb as "to have".
As in the examples above, the dative/lative case usually occurs in combination with another suffix as poss-lative case; this should not be regarded as a separate case, however, as many of the locative cases in Tsez are constructed analytically; hence, they are, in fact, a combination of two case suffixes. See Tsez language#Locative case suffixes for further details.
Verbs of perception or emotion (like "see", "know", "love", "want") also require the logical subject to stand in the dative/lative case. Note that in this example the "pure" dative/lative without its POSS-suffix is used.
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...
generally used to indicate the 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...
to whom something is given, as in "George gave Jamie a drink".
In general, the dative marks the indirect object of 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...
, although in some instances the dative is used for the direct object of a verb pertaining directly to an act of giving something. In Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
, Hebrew, and Swiss German
Swiss German
Swiss German is any of the Alemannic dialects spoken in Switzerland and in some Alpine communities in Northern Italy. Occasionally, the Alemannic dialects spoken in other countries are grouped together with Swiss German as well, especially the dialects of Liechtenstein and Austrian Vorarlberg...
, for example, the verb "to call (by telephone)" is always followed by a noun in the dative.
The thing being given may be a tangible object, such as "a book" or "a pen", or it may be an intangible abstraction, such as "an answer" or "help".
In some languages, the dative case has assimilated the functions of other now-extinct cases. In Ancient Greek
Ancient 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 dative has 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...
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...
as well as those of the original dative.
Sometimes the dative has functions unrelated to giving. In Scottish Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic language
Scottish Gaelic is a Celtic language native to Scotland. A member of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic languages, Scottish Gaelic, like Modern Irish and Manx, developed out of Middle Irish, and thus descends ultimately from Primitive Irish....
and Irish
Irish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
, the term dative case is misleadingly used in traditional grammars to refer to the prepositional case
Prepositional case
Prepositional case is a grammatical case that marks the object of a preposition. This term can be used in languages where nouns have a declensional form that appears exclusively in combination with certain prepositions...
-marking of nouns following simple prepositions and the definite article. In 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...
, the dative case also marks the subject of the sentence in some verbs and some tenses. This is also called the dative construction
Dative construction
The dative construction is a grammatical way of constructing a sentence, with the subject in the dative case and the direct object in the nominative case...
.
The dative was common among early Indo-European languages
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...
and has survived to the present in the Balto-Slavic
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...
branch and the 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...
branch, among others. It also exists in similar forms in several non-Indo-European languages, such as the Uralic
Uralic languages
The Uralic languages constitute a language family of some three dozen languages spoken by approximately 25 million people. The healthiest Uralic languages in terms of the number of native speakers are Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian, Mari and Udmurt...
family of languages, Altaic
Altaic languages
Altaic is a proposed language family that includes the Turkic, Mongolic, Tungusic, and Japonic language families and the Korean language isolate. These languages are spoken in a wide arc stretching from northeast Asia through Central Asia to Anatolia and eastern Europe...
family of languages and Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
(sometimes considered as Altaic).
Under the influence of English, which uses the preposition "to" for both indirect objects (give to) and directions of movement (go to), the term "dative" has sometimes been used to describe cases that in other languages would more appropriately be called lative
Lative case
Lative is a case which indicates motion to a location. It corresponds to the English prepositions "to" and "into". The lative case belongs to the group of the general local cases together with the locative and separative case...
.
Etymology
"Dative" comes from 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...
cāsus datīvus, meaning "case for giving", a translation of Greek "inflection for giving", from its use with the verb didónai "to give". Dionysius Thrax
Dionysius Thrax
Dionysius Thrax was a Hellenistic grammarian and a pupil of Aristarchus of Samothrace. His place of origin was not Thrace as the epithet Thrax denotes, but probably Alexandria...
in his Art of Grammar
Art of Grammar
The Art of Grammar is a treatise on Greek grammar attributed to Dionysius Thrax, and written in the 2nd century BC. It is the first work of grammar in Greek, and it sought mainly to help speakers of Koine Greek to be able to understand the language of Homer and other great poets of the past.It...
also refers to it as "for sending (a letter)", from the verb epistéllō "send to", a word from the same root as epistle
Epistle
An epistle is a writing directed or sent to a person or group of people, usually an elegant and formal didactic letter. The epistle genre of letter-writing was common in ancient Egypt as part of the scribal-school writing curriculum. The letters in the New Testament from Apostles to Christians...
.
English
The Old English languageOld 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...
, current until approximately sometime after the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066, had a dative case; however, the English case system gradually fell into disuse during the Middle English
Middle English
Middle English is the stage in the history of the English language during the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century....
period, when the accusative and dative pronouns merged into a single objective
Objective (grammar)
An objective pronoun in grammar functions as the target of a verb, as distinguished from a subjective pronoun, which is the initiator of a verb. Objective pronouns are instances of the oblique case....
pronoun used in both roles. This merging of accusative and dative functionality in Middle and Modern English has led most modern grammarians to discard the "accusative" and "dative" labels in English as obsolete, in favor of the term "objective".
Set expressions
While the dative case is no longer a part of modern English usage, it survives in a few set expressions. One good example is the word "methinks", with the meaning "it seems to me". It survives in this fixed form from the days of Old English (having undergone, however, phonetic changes with the rest of the language), in which it was constructed as "[it]" + "me" (the dative case of the personal pronoun) + "thinks" (i.e., "seems", < Old English thyncan, "to seem", a verb closely related to the verb thencan, "to think", but distinct from it in Old English; later it merged with "think" and lost this meaning).The dative case also survives, albeit rarely, in the ethic dative, used to express one's interest in a matter. This only occurs with pronouns. For instance, in the sentence, "Cry me a river," "me" is used to express the speaker's interest in the action.
Relic pronouns
The pronoun whomWHOM
WHOM is an American radio station which airs an adult contemporary format. It transmits from atop Mount Washington in New Hampshire and has a broadcast area of five states and Quebec. While the signal can be heard all over northern New England, the station broadcasts from and considers itself part...
is a remnant of the dative case in English, descending from the Old English dative pronoun "hwām" (as opposed to the nominative "who", which descends from Old English "hwā") — though "whom" also absorbed the functions of the Old English 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...
pronoun "hwone".
Likewise, "him" is a remnant of both the Old English dative "him" and accusative "hine", "her" serves for both Old English dative "hire" and accusative "hīe", etc.
Modern English
In Modern English, an indirect object is often expressed with a prepositional phraseAdpositional phrase
An adpositional phrase is a linguistics term defining a syntactic category that includes prepositional phrases and postpositional phrases. Adpositional phrases contain an adposition in the head position and usually a complement such as a noun phrase...
of "to" or "for". If there is a direct object, the indirect object can be expressed by an objective pronoun placed between the verb and the direct object. For example, "He gave that to me" and "He built a snowman for me" are the same as "He gave me that" and "He built me a snowman". Here, the objective pronoun "me" has the same function as a dative pronoun in a language that distinguishes accusative and dative cases.
German
In general, the dative is used to mark the indirect object of a GermanGerman language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
sentence. Certain German prepositions require the dative: aus, außer, bei, mit, nach, seit, von, zu, and gegenüber. Other prepositions (an, auf, hinter, in, neben, über, unter, vor, and zwischen) may be used with dative (indicating current location), or accusative (indicating direction toward something). Das Buch liegt auf dem Tisch (dative: the book is lying on the table), but Ich lege das Buch auf den Tisch (accusative: I put the book on the table). In addition, those German prepositions that require the genitive in formal language tend to be used with the dative in contemporary colloquial German; for example, "because of the weather" is often expressed as "wegen dem Wetter" instead of the formally correct "wegen des Wetters".
Note that the concept of an indirect object may be rendered by a prepositional phrase. In this case, the noun's or pronoun's case is determined by the preposition, NOT by its function in the sentence. Consider this sentence:
- Ich sandte das Buch zum Verleger. 'I sent the book to the editor.'
Here, 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...
, Ich, is in the nominative case
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 direct object, das Buch, is in the accusative case
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...
, and zum Verleger is in the dative case, since zu always requires the dative (zum is a contraction of zu + dem). However:
- Ich habe das Buch an meinen Freund (accusative) weitergegeben. 'I forwarded the book to my friend.' (weitergeben = lit.: to give further).
In this sentence, Freund would seem to be the indirect object, but, because it follows an (direction), the accusative is required, not the dative.
All of the articles change in the dative case.
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Definite article | dem | der | dem | den (plus an "n" at the end of most substantives) |
| Indefinite article (and other "ein-words") | einem | einer | einem | keinen (plus an "n" at the end of most substantives) |
Some German verbs require the dative for their direct objects. Common examples include folgen, helfen, and antworten. In each case, the direct object of the verb is rendered in dative. For example:
- Meine Freunde helfen mir. (My friends help me.)
The dative case is also used with reflexive (sich) verbs when specifying what part of the self the verb is being done to:
- Ich wasche mich. - accusative (I wash myself)
- Ich wasche mir die Hände. - dative (I wash my hands, literally "I wash to myself the hands")
Cf. the respective accord in French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
: "Les enfants se sont lavés" (the children have washed themselves) vs. "Les enfants se sont lavé" [unflected] "les mains" (... their hands).
Adjective endings also change in the dative case. Another factor that determines the endings of adjectives is whether the adjective is being used after a definite article (the), after an indefinite article (a/an), or without any article before the adjective (many green apples).
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Definite article | -en | -en | -en | -en |
| Indefinite Article | -en | -en | -en | -en |
| No article | -em | -er | -em | -en |
Latin
Except the main case (Dativus), there are several other kinds:- Dativus finalis with the meaning of purpose, e.g., auxilio vocare - "to call for help", venio auxilio - "I'm coming for help", accipio dono - "I receive this as a gift" or puellae ornamento est - "this serves for the girl's decoration";
- Dativus commodi (incommodi), which means action for somebody, e.g., Graecis agros colere - "to till fields for Greeks"; Combination of Dativus commodi and finalis (double Dative): tibi laetitiae "to you for joy"
- Dativus possessivus (possessive dative) which means possession, e.g., angelis alae sunt - literally "to (or for) the angels are wings", this is typically found with a copula and translated as "the angels have wings".
- Dativus ethicus (ethic dative) indicates that the person in the dative is or should be especially concerned about the action, e.g., 'quid mihi Celsus agit?' ' What is Celsus doing' (I am especially interested in what it is)?
- Dativus auctoris, meaning; 'in the eyes of', e.g., 'vir bonus mihi videtur' 'the man seems good to me'.
- The Dative is also used to express agency with the gerundive, a future passive participle that, along with the verb to be, expresses obligation or necessity of the action being performed on the noun with which it agrees, e.g., 'haec nobis agenda sunt,' 'these things must be done by us'
Greek
In addition to its main function as the Dativus, the dative case has different other functions in Classical Greek:- Dativus finalis: The dativus finalis, or the 'dative of purpose', is when the dative is used to denote the purpose of a certain action. For example:
- ""
- "I fight for the king".
- ""
- "I die for honour".
- ""
- Dativus commodi (incommodi): The dativus commodi sive incommodi, or the 'dative of benefit (or harm)' is the dative that expresses the advantage or disadvantage of something for someone. For example:
- For the benefit of: "" (SophoclesSophoclesSophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides...
, AjaxAjax (Sophocles)Sophocles's Ajax is a Greek tragedy written in the 5th century BC. The date of Ajax's first performance is unknown, but most scholars regard it as an early work, circa 450 - 430 B.C....
1366).- "Every man toils for himself".
- For the harm or disadvantage of: "" (ThucydidesThucydidesThucydides was a Greek historian and author from Alimos. His History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the 5th century BC war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 BC...
2.12.4).- "This day will be the beginning of great sorrows for the Greeks (i.e., for their disadvantage)".
- For the benefit of: "" (Sophocles
- Dativus possesivus: The dativus possesivus, or the 'dative of possession' is the dative used to denote the possessor of a certain object or objects. For example:
- "" (Thucycdides 1.86.3).
- "For others have a lot of money and ships and horses, but we have good allies (i.e., To others there is a lot of money..)".
- "" (Thucycdides 1.86.3).
- Dativus ethicus: The dativus ethicus, or the 'ethic or polite dative,' is when the dative is used to signify that the person or thing spoken of is regarded with interest by someone. This dative is mostly, if not exclusively, used in pronouns. As such, it is also called the "dative of pronouns." For example:
- "" (DemosthenesDemosthenesDemosthenes was a prominent Greek statesman and orator of ancient Athens. His orations constitute a significant expression of contemporary Athenian intellectual prowess and provide an insight into the politics and culture of ancient Greece during the 4th century BC. Demosthenes learned rhetoric by...
18.178).- "Pay close attention to this, I beg you (i.e., please pay..)".
- "" (XenophonXenophonXenophon , son of Gryllus, of the deme Erchia of Athens, also known as Xenophon of Athens, was a Greek historian, soldier, mercenary, philosopher and a contemporary and admirer of Socrates...
, Cyropaedia 18.178).- "Oh, mother, how handsome grandpa is (I've just realized!)".
- "" (Demosthenes
- Dativus auctoris: The dativus auctoris, or the 'dative of agent,' is the dative used to denote the doer of an action. Note, however, that in Classical Greek, the agent is usually in the genitiveGenitive caseIn grammar, genitive is the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun...
after (by, at the hands of). The agent is in the dative only with the perfect and pluperfect passivePassive voicePassive 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...
, and after the verbal adjectiveAdjectiveIn 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....
in . For example:- "" (IsocratesIsocratesIsocrates , an ancient Greek rhetorician, was one of the ten Attic orators. In his time, he was probably the most influential rhetorician in Greece and made many contributions to rhetoric and education through his teaching and written works....
8.39)- "Many cures have been discovered by doctors."
- "" (Isocrates
- Dativus instrumenti: The dativus instrumenti, or the 'dative of instrument,' is when the dative is used to denote an instrument or means of a certain action (or, more accurately, as the instrumental caseInstrumental caseThe 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...
). For example:- "." (HomerHomerIn the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
, OdysseyOdysseyThe 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...
9.407)- "He kills me with a bait (i.e., by means of a bait)."
- "." (Homer
- Dativus modi: The dativus modi, or the 'dative of manner,' is the dative used to describe the manner or way by which something happened. For example:
- "" (Thucydides 8.84)
- "having died of (from) a disease."
- "" (Thucydides 8.84)
- Dativus mensurae: The dativus mensurae, or the 'dative of measurement,' is the dative used to denote the measurement of difference. For example:
- "" (PlatoPlatoPlato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
, PhaedoPhaedoPlato's Phaedo is one of the great dialogues of his middle period, along with the Republic and the Symposium. The Phaedo, which depicts the death of Socrates, is also Plato's seventh and last dialogue to detail the philosopher's final days .In the dialogue, Socrates...
101a)- "taller by a head."
- "" (Plato, Laws 729d)
- "by far the best."
- "" (Plato
Slavic languages
In RussianRussian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
, the dative case is used to indicate the indirect object of an action (that to which something is given, thrown, read, etc.). In the instance where a person is the goal of motion, dative is used instead of 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...
to indicate motion toward. This is usually achieved with the preposition "κ" + destination in dative case; К врачу, meaning 'to the doctor'.
Dative is also the necessary case taken by certain prepositions when expressing certain ideas. For instance, when the preposition по is used to mean "along", its object is always in dative case as with, По бокам, 'along the sides'.
Other Slavic languages apply the dative case (and the other cases) more or less the same way as does Russian, some languages may use the dative in other ways. The following examples are from Polish
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
:
- after certain verbs (dziękować komuś "to thank someone", pomóc komuś "to help someone", wierzyć komuś "to believe someone")
- in certain expressions (Czy podoba ci się piosenka? "Do you like the song?", Jest mi zimno "I'm cold", Jest nam smutno "We're feeling sad", Będzie wam trudniej... "It will be more difficult for you guys"), Śniło jej się, że... "She dreamt that")
- dativus commodi to indicate action for somebody (Zbuduję temu człowiekowi dom "I will build a house for this person")
- when something is taken away or something occurs to someone (Zdechł im pies "Their dog died", Zabrali mu komputer "They took away his computer", Zepsuł nam się samochód "Our car broke down", Coś mi się przypomniało "I just remembered something")
Other kinds of dative case are also used in Serbo-Croatian language
Serbo-Croatian language
Serbo-Croatian or Serbo-Croat, less commonly Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian , is a South Slavic language with multiple standards and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro...
: Dativus finalis (Titaniku u pomoć "to Titanic's rescue"), Dativus commodi/incommodi (Operi svojoj majci suđe "Wash the dishes for your mother"), Dativus possessivus (Ovcama je dlaka gusta "Sheeps' hair is thick"), Dativus ethicus (Шта ми ради Бони? "What is Boni doing? (I am especially interested in what it is)") and Dativus auctoris (Izgleda mi okej "It seems okay to me").
Unusual in other Indo-European branches but common among 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...
, endings of nouns and adjectives are different. Other factors are gender and number. In some cases, the ending may not be obvious, even when those three factors are considered. That is, in Polish, syn ("son") and ojciec ("father") are both masculine singular nouns, but syn → synowi and ojciec → ojcu.
Baltic languages
Both Lithuanian and Latvian have a distinct dative case in the system of nominal declensions.Lithuanian nouns preserve Indo-European inflections in the dative case fairly well: (o-stems) vaikas -> sg. vaikui, pl. vaikams; (ā-stems) ranka -> sg. rankai, pl. rankoms; (i-stems) viltis -> sg. vilčiai, pl. viltims; (u-stems) sūnus -> sg. sūnui, pl. sūnums; (consonant stems) vanduo -> sg. vandeniui, pl. vandenims.
Adjectives in the dative case receive pronominal endings (this might be the result of a more recent development): tas geras vaikas -> sg. tam geram vaikui, pl. tiems geriems vaikams.
The Dative case in Latvian underwent further simplifications - the original masculine endings of both nouns and adjectives have been replaced with pronominal inflections: tas vīrs -> sg. tam vīram, pl. tiem vīriem. Also, the final "s" in all Dative forms has been dropped. The only exception is personal pronouns in the plural: mums (to us), jums (to you). Note that in colloquial Lithuanian the final "s" in the Dative is often omitted, as well: time geriem vaikam.
In both Latvian and Lithuanian, the main function of the Dative case is to render the indirect object in a sentence: (lt) aš duodu vyrui knygą; (lv) es dodu [duodu] vīram grāmatu - I am giving a book to the man.
The Dative case can also be used with gerundives to indicate an action preceding or simultaneous with the main action in a sentence: (lt) jam įėjus, visi atsistojo - when he walked in, everybody stood up, lit. to him having walked in, all stood up; (lt) jai miegant, visi dirbo - while she slept, everybody was working, lit. to her sleeping, all were working.
In modern standard Lithuanian, Dative case is not required by prepositions, although in many dialects it is done frequently: (dial.) iki (+D) šiai dienai, (stand.) iki (+G) šios dienos - up until this day.
In Latvian, the dative case is taken by several prepositions in the singular and all prepositions in the plural (due to peculiar historical changes): sg. bez (+G) tevis (without thee) ~ pl. bez (+D) jums (without you); sg. pa (+A) ceļu (along the road) ~ pl. pa (+D) ceļiem (along the roads).
Armenian
The dative case in Armenian (տրական) is signified with a -ի (-i) ending (some Western Armenian dialects will use -ին (-in) suffix for the dative.)The most common use of the Dative in Armenian is to indicate the indirect object of an action.
- շուն (šun, dog) → շունի (šuni, to the dog)
- շունի ուտելիք տալիս էիմ (šuni utelik talis eim) = I gave the dog food / I gave food to the dog)
In addition to showing the indirect object of an action, it also shows movement toward a place or direction.
- տուն (dun, house)→ տունին (dunin, to the house)
- տունին մօտեցայ (dunin modetsa) = I approached the house
Sanskrit
The term "dative" is grammatically similar to the Sanskrit word "datta". "Datta" means "gift" or "the act of giving". The dative case is the fourth in the usual procedure in the declension of nouns (chaturthi-vibhakti).Hungarian
As with many other languages, the dative case is used in Hungarian to show the indirect object of a verb. For example, Dánielnek adtam ezt a könyvet (I gave this book to Dániel).It has two suffixes, -nak and -nek; the correct is selected by vowel harmony
Vowel harmony
Vowel harmony is a type of long-distance assimilatory phonological process involving vowels that occurs in some languages. In languages with vowel harmony, there are constraints on which vowels may be found near each other....
. The personal dative pronouns follow the -nek version: nekem, neked, etc.
This case is also used to express "for" in certain circumstances, such as "I bought a gift for Mother".
In possessive constructions the nak/nek endings are also used but this is NOT the dative form (rather, the attributive or possessive case)
Tsez
In the Northeast Caucasian languages, such as TsezTsez language
Tsez, also known as Dido is a Northeast Caucasian language with about 15,354 speakers spoken by the Tsez, a Muslim people in the mountainous Tsunta district of southern and western Dagestan in Russia. The name is said to derive from the Tsez word for "eagle", which is most likely a folk etymology...
, the dative also takes the functions of the lative case
Lative case
Lative is a case which indicates motion to a location. It corresponds to the English prepositions "to" and "into". The lative case belongs to the group of the general local cases together with the locative and separative case...
in marking the direction of an action. By some linguists, they are still regarded as two separate cases in those languages, although the suffixes are exactly the same for both cases. Other linguists list them separately only for the purpose of separating syntactic cases from locative cases. An example with the ditransitive verb "show" (literally: "make see") is given below:
| Кидбā ужихъор кIетIу биквархо. | |||
| kidb-ā | uži-qo-r | kʼetʼu | b-ikʷa-r-xo |
| girl:OBL-ERG Ergative case The ergative case is the grammatical case that identifies the subject of a transitive verb in ergative-absolutive languages.-Characteristics:... |
boy-POSS-DAT/LAT | cat:[III] 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... :ABS Absolutive case The absolutive case is the unmarked grammatical case of a core argument of a verb which is used as the citation form of a noun.-In ergative languages:... |
III 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... -see-CAUS 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.... -PRES Present tense The present tense is a grammatical tense that locates a situation or event in present time. This linguistic definition refers to a concept that indicates a feature of the meaning of a verb... |
| "The girl shows the cat to the boy." | |||
The dative/lative is also used to indicate possession, as in the example below, because there is no such verb as "to have".
| Кидбехъор кIетIу зовси. | ||
| kidbe-qo-r | kʼetʼu | zow-si |
| girl:OBL-POSS-DAT/LAT | cat:ABS Absolutive case The absolutive case is the unmarked grammatical case of a core argument of a verb which is used as the citation form of a noun.-In ergative languages:... |
be:PST-PST Past tense The past tense is a grammatical tense that places an action or situation in the past of the current moment , or prior to some specified time that may be in the speaker's past, present, or future... |
| "The girl had a cat." | ||
As in the examples above, the dative/lative case usually occurs in combination with another suffix as poss-lative case; this should not be regarded as a separate case, however, as many of the locative cases in Tsez are constructed analytically; hence, they are, in fact, a combination of two case suffixes. See Tsez language#Locative case suffixes for further details.
Verbs of perception or emotion (like "see", "know", "love", "want") also require the logical subject to stand in the dative/lative case. Note that in this example the "pure" dative/lative without its POSS-suffix is used.
| ГIалир ПатIи йетих. | ||
| Patʼi | y-eti-x | |
| Ali-DAT/LAT Lative case Lative is a case which indicates motion to a location. It corresponds to the English prepositions "to" and "into". The lative case belongs to the group of the general local cases together with the locative and separative case... |
Fatima:[II] 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... :ABS Absolutive case The absolutive case is the unmarked grammatical case of a core argument of a verb which is used as the citation form of a noun.-In ergative languages:... |
II 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... -love-PRES Present tense The present tense is a grammatical tense that locates a situation or event in present time. This linguistic definition refers to a concept that indicates a feature of the meaning of a verb... |
| "Ali loves Fatima." | ||
External links
- German dative case A lesson covering the dative case in the German language
- Hungarian dative case from www. HungarianReference.com
- Russian Dative: http://www.russianlessons.net/grammar/nouns_dative.php, http://www.russian-resources.info/links.aspx/grammar/nouns/dat, http://www.learnrussian.net/learn-russian-dative-case.html