Ilyish:Case is the category of a noun expressing relations between the thing

denoted by the noun and other things, or properties, or actions, and manifested by
some formal sign in the noun itself (e.g. inflection, zero-morpheme).
The problem of case in ME nouns is one of the most vexed (disputed) problems in
English grammar. The views on the subject differ widely.

Views:The number of approaches is due to a difference in the interpretation of the

category of case.LIMITED CASE THEORY: Prof.Ilyish doesn�t recognize any case
expressed by non-morphological means ? preposition + Noun is not a case form ?
English nouns have 2 cases: common case (e.g. father) and genitive case (e.g.
father�s); H.Sweet, O.Jespersen, prof.Smirnitsky, prof.Barhudarov.

POSITIONAL CASE THEORY: The number of cases in English is more than 2 (3, 4, 5 �);
the case may be expressed by prepositions or by word order;
Max Deutschbein: ME nouns have 4 cases:
nominative; genitive (-�s; of�); dative (to�; word order); accusative (word order).

I.I.Meshchaninov:
+ instrumental case (e.g. with the pen);
+ locative case (e.g. in the pen)

John Lyons: Nominative, e.g. Bill died.Accusative, e.g. John killed Bill.Dative,
e.g. John gave the book to Tom. John gave Tom the book.Genitive, e.g. It�s Harry�s
pencil.Instrumental, e.g. John killed Bill with a knife.Agentive, e.g. Bill was
killed by John with a knife.Commitative, e.g. John went to town with Mary.
Bryant:nominative,genitive,objective

Curme: PREPOSITIONAL CASE THEORY � there are as many cases as there are
prepositions (e.g. of Peter, to peter, with Peter�etc)
The category of case has been destroyed ? The theory of possessive postposition
(prof.Vorontsova). There are no cases in English nouns at all, e.g. Smith and
Brown�s office (the office belonging to both Smith and Brown). The man I saw
yesterday�s son � �noun + attributive clause + -�s). ? views:
-when ��s belongs to a noun it is still the genitive ending, when it belongs to a
phrase it tends to become a syntactical element, a postposition;
-since ��s can belong to a phrase it is no longer a case inflection even when it
belongs to a single noun;
-the -�s when belonging to a noun, no longer expresses a case, but a new
grammatical category of �possession�.
!!! Weak point: 94% -�s is added to single nouns and the function is always
�attribute�.

��������/��������:
The category of case of nouns is the system of opposemes (girl-girl�s) showing the
relations of the noun to other words in speech.
Case is one of those categories which show the close connection (a) between
language and speech, (b) between morphology and syntax.
a.the members of the case opposeme John-John�s are united paradigmatically on the
basis of their syntagmatic differences.
b.Though case is a morphological category it has a distinct syntactical
significance. Common case ? the functions of subject and object; possessive case ?
the function of an attribute.