LinguisticsLesson 3 of 3 in the course German noun and case system

Declension and Case Across English, Latin, and Sanskrit

5 flashcards · 5 quiz questions · 5 match pairs · 5 fill-in sentences · English

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Summary

Declension is a way that languages change the form of words to express grammatical information. It helps readers and listeners identify how words relate to one another, even when their order changes.

Declension is the inflectional changing of a word’s form, often to show its syntactic function in a sentence. It may apply to nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and determiners. The inflectional changing of verbs is called conjugation, not declension.

All flashcards

What is declension?
Inflectional change in a word’s form that expresses grammatical information.
How does conjugation differ from declension?
Conjugation is the inflection of verbs; declension applies to other word classes.
What is grammatical case?
A grammatical category of word forms that signals a role or relationship in a sentence.
What are kāraka in the Sanskrit grammatical tradition?
Semantic roles describing how participants relate to an action.
Why is Modern English described as mostly analytic?
It relies more on word order and other constructions than on extensive inflection.

Quiz questions

  1. Which pair gives the plural forms of the English demonstratives this and that?Answer: These and those.
  2. Which function is commonly associated with the Latin ablative?Answer: Expressing relationships often translated as by, with, or from.
  3. How many cases is Sanskrit commonly described as having?Answer: Eight.
  4. How do most Modern English nouns mark grammatical gender?Answer: They generally do not change form systematically for gender.
  5. Which forms are the subjective and objective forms of the third-person singular pronoun referring to a male person?Answer: He and him.

Based on the Wikipedia article Declension, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Adapted into a summary, flashcards and quizzes.

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