CASE GRAMMAR
Charles J. Fillmore
Bambee Rivera
Discussant
About Charles Fillmore
Charles J. Fillmore (born 1929) is
an American linguist, and an
Emeritus Professor of Linguistics
at the University of California,
Berkeley.
He was a proponent of Noam
Chomsky's theory of generative
grammar during its earliest
transformational grammar phase.
Charles Fillmore (1968) proposed
that the deep structure of any
sentence consists of a MODALITY
and a PROPOSITION.
CASE GRAMMAR
Case Grammar is a system of linguistic analysis,
focusing on the link between the valence, or
number of subjects, objects, of a verb and the
grammatical context it requires. The system was
created by the American linguist Charles J. Fillmore
in (1968), in the context of Transformational
Grammar.
This theory analyzes the surface syntactic structure of sentences
by studying the combination of deep cases (i.e. semantic roles) --
Agent, Object, Benefactor, Location or Instrument—which are
required by a specific verb.
For instance, the verb "give" in English requires an Agent (A) and
Object (O), and a Beneficiary (B);
A fundamental hypothesis of case grammar is that grammatical
functions, such as subject or object, are determined by the
deep, semantic valence of the verb, which finds its syntactic
correlate in such grammatical categories as Subject and Object,
and in grammatical cases such as Nominative, Accusative, etc.
Fillmore (1968) puts forwards the following hierarchy for a
universal subject selection rule:
Universal Subject Hierarchy Rule:
Agent < Instrumental < Objective
That means that if the case frame of a verb contains an agent,
this one is realized as the subject of an active sentence;
otherwise, the deep case following the agent in the hierarchy
(i.e. Instrumental) is promoted to subject.
Case Notions according to Fillmore
Began with six cases:
Agentive (A)
Instrumental (I)
Dative (D)
Objective (O)
Factitive (F)
Locative (L)
1. Agentive (A)
It is the case on a noun or noun phrase that refers to people or
animals who perform or initiate
Example:
1. John chew the candy.
(John is in the Agentive case. But the subject of the verb does not need always be in
the agentive case.)
In the other sentence:
2. John likes candy.
(John did not do an act/action, but his attitude toward the candy is called. John in this
sentence is not in the agentive case but in the dative case.)
2. Instrumental (I)
It is about an inanimate instrument which ids the
cause of an action or state expressed by the verb,
which in English by using the preposition “with”.
Example:
1. The door was opened with the key by Bella.
2. The window was broken by a hammer.
3. Gina sliced the onion with a knife.
3. Dative (D)
It is the a case of the noun or noun phrase that refers to a
person or animal that is affected state or action verbs.
Example:
1. Gregory was frightened by storm.
2. I persuaded Tom to go.
(Gregory and Tom are in the dative case. Both Tom and Gregory is influenced
by something. Gregory is intimidated and Tom was experienced persuasion.)
• Dative renamed as Experiencer
4. Objective (O)
It is the case in the phrase or noun phrase that refers to anyone or
anything that has a neutral relationship to the action verbs. Noun
or noun phrase in the objective case no action, do not act, nor the
instrument / equipment / means of action.
Example:
1. Marry sliced the onion with a knife.
(The Onion, is not the agent (such as Marry) nor instrument (such as knife); but
instead it is in the Objective case.)
(The notion of objective case had everything to do with the traditional sense of the
object. However, not everything that is in the objective case can be an object and not
all objects can be considered to be in the objective case.)
5. Factitive (F)
It is a case in phrase or noun phrase that refers to something that
is made or created by the action verbs.
Example:
1. Tony built the shed.
(The Shed is in the case of factitive.)
On the other sentence:
2. Tony repaired the shed.
(The Shed is not located in the factitive case because ‘the shed’ had been there
standing at the time of restoration was carried out.)
• Factitive renamed as Result
6. Locative (L)
It is the case on a phrase or noun phrase that refers
to the location / site of the action verbs.
Example:
Irene put the dictionary on the table.
(The table is in the locative case. In English it can be seen by using of the
preposition; on, in, at, from.)
Bibliography
1. http://www.icsi.berkeley.edu/icsi/blog/chuck-fillmore-dies-at-84
2. http://www- rci.rutgers.edu/~cfs/305_html/Understanding/CaseGram1.html
3. http://www.oxforddictionaries.com
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ping_writing_skills.pdf&usg=AOvVaw0fdqg4bpnlHIFn_xANbzed
