Number of nominal cases (Hungarian)

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.

Author: 

Nikolett F. Gulyás