18NCases: The case systemhas 18 cases.
(1) | Nominative | barát ‘friend’ |
(2) | Accusative | barát-ot |
(3) | Dative | barát-nak |
(4) | Inessive | barát-ban |
(5) | Elative | barát-ból |
(6) | Illative | barát-ba |
(7) | Adessive | barát-nál |
(8) | Ablative | barát-tól |
(9) | Allative | barát-hoz |
(10) | Superessive | barát-on |
(11) | Delative | barát-ról |
(12) | Sublative | barát-ra |
(13) | Comitative-Instrumental | barát-tal |
(14) | Causal-final | barát-ért |
(15) | Translative | barát-tá |
(16) | Terminative | barát-ig |
(17) | Formative | barát-ként |
(18) | Essive-formal | barát-ul |
(19) | Locative | Pécs-ett ‘town in Hungary’ |
(20) | Temporal | hat-kor ‘six’ |
(21) | Iterative | nap-onta ‘day’ |
(22) | Comitative | barát-ostul |
(23) | Multiplicative | hat-szor ‘six’ |
(24) | Modalis | baráti-lag |
(25) | Modalis-essive | hat-an ‘six’ |
(26) | Formal | barát-képpen |
(27) | Distributive | barát-onként |
(28) | Genitive | a barát(nak a) |
Depending on the definition of case, 18-28 nominal cases can be differentiated in Hungarian. The first 18 examples (1)-(18) are unequivocally regarded as cases in the literature (cf. Kiefer 2003: 200-204, Kenesei et al. 1998: 190‒194, Balogh 2000a: 191‒204). Concerning their morphology, there are three grammatical cases: the unmarked nominative, the accusative, and the dative. Furthermore, there are productive spatial cases (4)-(12). The instrumental, the causal-final, the terminative, the formative, and the essive are lexical cases. The remaining suffixes (19)-(28) are not undoubtable case markers. The locative is no longer productive. The temporal, the iterative, and the multiplicative cases can only appear on adjectives/numerals. The other types (25)-(28) may not be genuine case-markers but derivational suffixes or derivational-like combining forms. In a non-morphological approach (cf. Ladányi 2008), the genitive was suggested to be included in the nominal case system, although it does not have a distinct morphological marker.