Case Grammar
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:
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.)
(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.)
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
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2. http://www- rci.rutgers.edu/~cfs/305_html/Understanding/CaseGram1.html
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