In
linguisticsLinguistics is the scientific study of natural language. Linguistics encompasses a number of sub-fields. An important topical division is between the study of language structure and the study of meaning...
,
declension is the occurrence of
inflectionIn grammar, inflection or inflexion is the way language modifies word forms to handle grammatical relations and relational categories such as tense, mood, voice, aspect , person, number , gender, case . Beside conjugation and declension there is comparison with its maximum category number of two In...
in
nounIn 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....
s,
pronounIn linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun with or without a determiner, such as you and they in English...
s and
adjectiveIn grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntactic role is to modify a noun or pronoun, giving more information about the noun or pronoun's referent...
s, indicating such features as
numberIn linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
(typically singular vs. plural),
caseIn grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun indicates its grammatical function in a greater phrase or clause; such as the role of subject, of direct object, or of possessor. Usually a language is said to "have cases" only if nouns change their form to reflect their case. Others indicate cases in...
(
subjectThe subject is one of the two main constituents of a clause, according to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle. The other constituent is the predicate...
,
objectAn object in grammar is a sentence element and is often part of the sentence predicate. It denotes somebody or something involved in the subject's "performance" of the verb...
, and so on),
genderIn linguistics, grammatical genders, sometimes also called noun classes, are classes of nouns reflected in the behavior of associated words; every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be very few which belong to several classes at once....
, and
possessionPossession, in the context of linguistics, is an asymmetric relationship between two constituents, the referent of one of which possesses the referent of the other....
. Declension occurs in a great many of the world's languages, and features very prominently in many European languages, but is much less prominent in
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
. English nouns decline only to distinguish singular from plural (e.g.,
book vs.
books); only very few English adjectives decline (the French loan-word
blond(e) being a rare exception), and only a few English pronouns show vestiges of case-triggered declension (e.g.,
nominative caseThe nominative case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments....
he,
dative caseThe dative case is a grammatical case generally used to indicate the noun to whom something is given. For example, in "John gave Mary a book"....
or
accusative caseThe 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...
him,
genitive caseIn grammar, the genitive case is the case that marks a noun as modifying another noun...
(
possessive caseThe possessive case of a language is a grammatical case used to indicate a relationship of possession. It is not the same as the genitive case, which can express a wider range of relationships, though the two have similar meanings in many languages....
)
his). As detailed below, English was once a highly inflected language, as befitting its
Indo-EuropeanIndo-European may refer to:* Indo-European languages** Aryan, a 19th century term for Indo-European speakers.* Proto-Indo-European language, the reconstructed common ancestor of all Indo-European languages....
and especially its
GermanicThe Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all the languages in this branch is Proto-Germanic, spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
linguistic ancestry, but it became greatly simplified as it evolved.
English
In
Modern EnglishModern 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
verbkalleah hit meIn syntax, a verb is a word that usually denotes an action , an occurrence , or a state of being . Depending on the language, a verb may vary in form according to many factors, possibly including its tense, aspect, mood and voice...
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 do not have distinct possessive forms; rather, the
cliticIn morphology, a clitic is a grammatically independent and phonologically dependent morpheme. It is pronounced like an affix, but works at the phrase level...
-'s attaches to a noun phrase to indicate that it serves as a possessor.)
English once had a much richer system of declension. First, there were a few more grammatical cases; Modern English's objective case results from a merging of Old English's accusative, dative, and instrumental cases (like
a message,
him, and
post in "I sent a message to him via post," respectively). Second, the distinction between these cases was visible in all nouns, not just certain pronouns (indeed, the modern clitic
-'s descends from an affix used to mark Old English's genitive case, the ancestor of Modern English's
possessivePossessive may be:* Possessive case* Possessive adjective* Possessive pronoun* Possessive suffix* Possessive construction, pattern among words indicating possession * For possessive behavior in a relationship, see Attachment in adults...
pronoun forms). Third, adjectives were declined to reflect the number and case of the nouns they modified; this is called
agreementIn languages, agreement or concord is a form of cross-reference between different parts of a sentence or phrase. Agreement happens when a word changes form depending on the other words it relates to....
, and is analogous to
conjugationIn linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb, noun or adjective from its principal parts by inflection . Conjugation may be affected by person, number, gender, tense, aspect, mood, voice, or other grammatical categories...
of verbs in Modern English (consider the difference between "I read" and "He reads"; here,
read has changed form to agree with its subject). Fourth, every noun had a
genderIn linguistics, grammatical genders, sometimes also called noun classes, are classes of nouns reflected in the behavior of associated words; every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be very few which belong to several classes at once....
, either masculine, feminine, or neuter, which was reflected (via agreement) in adjectives that modified it and pronouns that had it as antecedent (there were some further complications as well; for example, adjectives had both
weak declensions and
strong declensions. For more information,
see Old English morphologyThe morphology of the Old English language is quite different from that of Modern English, predominantly by being much more highly inflected. As an old Germanic language, Old English's morphological system is similar to that of the hypothetical Proto-Germanic reconstruction, retaining many of the...
).
Latin
An example of a
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
noun declension is given below, using the singular forms of the word
homo (
man), which belongs to Latin's third declension.
(
nominativeThe nominative case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments....
) "[the] man" [as a subject] (e.g., the man is standing there) (
genitiveIn grammar, the genitive case is the case that marks a noun as modifying another noun...
) "of [the] man" [as a possessor](e.g., the man's name is Claudius) (
dativeThe dative case is a grammatical case generally used to indicate the noun to whom something is given. For example, in "John gave Mary a book"....
) "to [the] man" [as an indirect object] (e.g., I gave a present to the man; Man is a wolf to man.) (
accusativeThe 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) (
ablativeIn 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 declensions in Latin, namely the vocative and the locative.
The vocative is widely used in Latin and refers to addressing someone or something (e.g.,
O Tite, cur ancillam pugnas? O Titus, why do you fight the slave girl?)
The locative case is only rarely used in Latin, but refers to the location of a person or an object.
Sanskrit
Declension has been analyzed extensively in
SanskritSanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also declared as a classical language by the government of India....
, where it is known as
karakaKaraka may refer to the following:*Karaka , a tree endemic to New Zealand*Karaka, New Zealand, a small town in the North Island, New Zealand*Karaka , a concept in Vedic astrology...
. Seven varieties are defined by Pāṇini, largely in terms of their semantic
roleThematic role is a linguistic notion, which may refer to:* Theta role * Thematic relation...
s, but with detailed rules specifying the corresponding morphosyntactic derivations:
- agent
- patient
- means ' onMouseout='HidePop("95217")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Instrumental_case">instrumental
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...
)
- recipient ' onMouseout='HidePop("69903")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Dative_case">dative
The dative case is a grammatical case generally used to indicate the noun to whom something is given. For example, in "John gave Mary a book"....
)
- source ' onMouseout='HidePop("44589")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Ablative_case">ablative
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...
)
- possessor ' onMouseout='HidePop("19275")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Genitive_case">genitive
In grammar, the genitive case is the case that marks a noun as modifying another noun...
)
- locus ' onMouseout='HidePop("93960")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Locative_case">locative
Locative is a grammatical case which indicates a location. It corresponds vaguely to the English prepositions "in", "on", "at", and "by"...
or goal)
For example, consider the following sentence:
| |
|
|
|
| [from] the tree |
a leaf |
[on] the ground |
falls |
| "a leaf falls from the tree on (onto) the ground" |
Here
leaf is the agent,
tree is the source, and
ground is the locus, the corresponding declensions are reflected in the morphemes and , respectively.
In addition, another declension exists, known as the vocative. It is used to indicate the object being addressed. For example: , "O Rama".
Languages with rich nominal inflection typically have a number of identifiable
declension classes, or groups of nouns that share a similar pattern of declension. Whereas Sanskrit has six classes, Latin is traditionally said to have 5 declension classes (see article on
Latin 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...
). Such languages often exhibit free word order, since thematic roles are not dependent on position.
Though English
pronouns can have subject and object forms (he/him, she/her),
nouns show only a singular/plural and a possessive/non-possessive distinction (e.g.,
chair,
chairs,
chair's,
chairs'). Note that
chair does not change form between "the chair is here" (subject) and "I saw the chair" (direct object). The
n-declension is restricted to a few words like ox-oxen, brother-brethren, and child-children, though in Medieval English the s-declension and the n-declension were in stronger competition.
Declension in specific languages
- Basque declension
- Czech declension
Czech 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. Notice that no word has the maximum of 14 potential forms in singular and plural...
- Dutch declension system
- Finnish language noun cases
Finnish 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 language grammar....
- German declension
German 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...
- Icelandic declension
Icelandic is a North Germanic language, the language of Iceland. Its closest relatives are Faroese and certain Norwegian dialects such as Telemark dialect and Sognamål....
- Irish declension
- Latin declension
Latin 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...
- Old English declension
- Polish declension
- Russian declension
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;...
- Serbian declension
Serbian declension describes the declension, or system of grammatically-determined modifications, in nouns, adjectives, pronouns and numerals in the Serbian language...
- Slovak declension
The Slovak language, like most Slavic languages or like Latin, 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...
- Slovenian declension
Related topics
- Grammatical case
In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun indicates its grammatical function in a greater phrase or clause; such as the role of subject, of direct object, or of possessor. Usually a language is said to "have cases" only if nouns change their form to reflect their case. Others indicate cases in...
- Grammatical conjugation
In linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb, noun or adjective from its principal parts by inflection . Conjugation may be affected by person, number, gender, tense, aspect, mood, voice, or other grammatical categories...
- Inflection
In grammar, inflection or inflexion is the way language modifies word forms to handle grammatical relations and relational categories such as tense, mood, voice, aspect , person, number , gender, case . Beside conjugation and declension there is comparison with its maximum category number of two In...
- Strong inflection
A 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 inflection
In 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