Instrumental case
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Grammatical features |
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In grammar, the instrumental case (abbreviated INS or INSTR) is a grammatical case used to indicate that a noun is the instrument or means by or with which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action. The noun may be either a physical object or an abstract concept.
General discussion
The instrumental case appears in this Russian sentence:
Я
Ya
I
написал
napisal
wrote
письмо
pis'mo
(the) letter
пером.
perom.
[with] (a) quill pen.
Here, the inflection of the noun indicates its instrumental role: the nominative перо changes its ending to become пером.
Modern English expresses the instrumental meaning by use of adverbial phrases that begin with the words with, by, or using, followed by the noun indicating the instrument:
- I wrote the note with a pen.
- I wrote the note (by) using a pen.
Technical descriptions often use the phrase "by means of", which is similar to "by use of", as in:
- I wrote the note by means of a pen.
- I wrote the note by use of a pen.
This can be replaced by "via", which is a Latin ablative of the nominative (viā) via, meaning road, route, or way. In the ablative it means by way of.
The instrumental case appears in
The instrumental case is notably used in Russian, where the case is called творительный падеж (tvoritel'nyj padež) though similar usages also can be found in other Balto-Slavic languages. In most declension paradigms, the instrumental case in Russian can generally be distinguished by the -ом ("-om") suffix for most masculine and neuter nouns, the -ою/-oй ("-oju"/"-oj") suffix for most feminine nouns and -ами ("-ami") for any of the three genders in the plural.
Just as in English the preposition "with" can express instrumental ("using, by means of"), comitative ("in the company of"), and a number of other semantic relations, the instrumental case in Russian is not limited to its instrumental thematic role. It is also used to denote:
- the agent in a passive voice construction. E.g.: "Книга написана Марком Твеном" ("The book was written by Mark Twain"). Here, "Марком Твеном" ("by Mark Twain") is "Марк Твен" ("Mark Twain") in the instrumental case.
- a predicate with infinitive, future tense, imperative, conditional and gerund of the verbs "быть" and "являться" (both meaning 'to be') (for example, "я хочу быть врачом", "не будь трусом" translate as "I want to be a doctor" and "don't be a coward", with the nouns in the instrumental case).
- a predicate with a number of other verbs, denoting state, appearance, manner, consideration, etc.
- parts of the day, seasons of the year, and some other temporal relations. For example, the sentence "я работаю утром" (ja rabotaju utrom) means "I work in the morning". The word утро (utro, "morning") in its instrumental case denotes the time in which the action (in the case of this example, "working") takes place ("in the morning").
- similarity. For example, the phrases "выть волком," "умереть героем," "лететь стрелой" (to howl like a wolf, to die like a hero, to fly like an arrow) use nouns in the instrumental case.
- location, when used with prepositions "behind", "in front of", "under", "above", "next to", and "between"
The Russian instrumental case is also used with verbs of use and control (to own, to manage, to abuse, to rule, to possess, etc.), attitude (to be proud of, to threaten (with), to value, to be interested (in), to admire, to be obsessed (with), etc.), reciprocal action (to share, to exchange), and some other verbs.
Though the instrumental case does not exist in many languages, some languages use other cases to denote the means, or instrument, of an action. In
In Modern
Indo-European languages
Proto-Indo-European has been reconstructed as having eight cases, one of which was the instrumental.[2]: §7.1
Sanskrit
The instrumental case in
- It can indicate the instrument (of an action):
रामो
Rāmo
लेखन्या
lekhanyā
लिखति।
likhati.
"Rāma writes with a pen."
- It can be used to indicate someone or something accompanying an action. In this case, the sense of "company" is indicated by postpositions like सह saha ("with") (may be optionally omitted):
दासेन
Dāsena
सह
saha
देवदत्तोऽगच्छत्।
devadatto'gacchat.
"Devadatta went accompanied by the servant."
- It can indicate the agent of a passive verb:
देवदत्तेन
Devadattena
यवं
yavaṁ
खाद्यते।
khādyate.
"Barley is eaten by Devadatta."
- It can indicate the cause, reason or circumstance of an action. In this case, it can be translated as "because of", "out of", etc.:
दुःखेन
duḥkhena
ग्रामम्
grāmam
अत्यजत्।
atyajat.
"He abandoned the village out of misery."
- It is used with the preposition विना vinā ("without"):
जलेन
jalena
विना
vinā
पद्मं
padmaṁ
नश्यति।
naśyati.
"A lotus dies without water."
- It can also be used with the particles अलम् alam कृतम् kṛtam, both meaning "enough".
कृतं
kṛtaṁ
कोलाहलेन।
kolāhalena.
"Enough with noise."
Assamese
In Standard Assamese (এ)ৰে (e)re indicates the instrumental case. (এ)দি (e)di does the job in some dialects.
চিমিয়ে
simie
কলমেৰে
kolomere
লিখে।
likhe.
"Simi writes with pens/a pen."
আমি
ami
হাবিৰে
habire
গৈ
goi
আছোঁ।
asü.
"We are going through a forest."
বাটিটো
batitü
মাটিৰে
matire
বনোৱা।
bonüa.
"The bowl is made of soil."
Ancient Greek
The functions of the Proto-Indo-European instrumental case were taken over by the dative, so that the Greek dative has functions belonging to the Proto-Indo-European dative, instrumental, and locative.[4] This is the case with the bare dative, and the dative with the preposition σύν sýn "with". It is possible, however, that Mycenean Greek had the instrumental case, which was later replaced by dative in all the Greek dialects.[5]
Germanic
In nouns, the Old German instrumental was replaced with the dative in Middle High German, comparable with English and Ancient Greek, with a construction of mit (with) + dative clause (in English, the objective case is used). For example:
"Hans schrieb mit einem Stifte*."
(John [nominative] wrote with a [dative] pencil [dative].)
*the German dative -e is not used in most common conversation; it is only used here for a better demonstration.
- ein = a, nominative case masculine/neuter → einem = a, dative case masculine/neuter
- (der) Stift = (the) pencil, masculine, nominative
- (dem) Stifte = (the) pencil, masculine, dative
Czech
Just as above, the object with which the action is done or completed is declined. For example:
- Píšu perem.
- psát = to write; píšu = I write
- pero = a pen → perem = with a pen
- Jedu do školy autobusem.
- jet = to go via transport (× jít = to go on foot); jedu = I go (using any kind of vehicle)
- škola = school, do školy = to school (dative)
- autobus = a bus → autobusem = by bus
Armenian
The instrumental in Armenian is denoted by the -ով (-ov) suffix to say that an action is done by, with or through an agent.
- մատիտ (matit, pencil) → մատիտով (matitov, with/by a pencil)
- մատիտով գրիր (matitov grir) Write with a pencil.
While the instrumental case is the form most commonly used for this purpose, when coupled with the
Serbo-Croatian
Instrumental in the Serbo-Croatian language group is usually used to denote a noun with which the action is done, e.g. "Idem autom" - "I'm going by means of a car", "Jedem vilicom/viljuškom" - "I eat with a fork", "Prenosi se zrakom/vazduhom" - "It's transferred through air", "Prožeta je bijesom" - "She's consumed by anger". The instrumental preposition "s(a)", meaning "with", is supposed to be dropped in this usage, but it is often kept in casual speech when talking about objects in use, such as a pen, a hammer, etc.
Instrumental can also denote company, in which case "s(a)" is mandatory, e.g. "Pričali smo sa svima" - "We talked with everyone", "Došao je s roditeljima" - "He came with his parents", "Šetala se sa psom" - "She was taking a walk with her dog". Dropping "s(a)" in this case would either make the sentences incorrect, or change their meaning entirely because dative, locative and instrumental share the same form in the plural, so the examples "Pričali smo svima" i "Došao je roditeljima" would come to mean "We told everyone" and "He came to his parents".
Instrumental is also used with certain spatial prepositions like "među" (between), "nad" (above), "pod" (underneath), "pred" (in front of) and "za" (after). Note the difference between these prepositions and similar ones used for genitive with an -i suffix: "između", "iznad", "ispod", "ispred" and "iza".
Instrumental is used without proposition to denote travelling through an area: "Putujem zemljom" - "I'm travelling the country", "Hodam plažom" - "I'm walking along a beach", etc.
It can also be used to show how long or when in a larger scope of time something happened: "Nema ih godinama" - "They haven't come in years", "S vremenom će proći" - "It will pass in time", "Jednom tjednom" - "Once a week", etc.
Latvian
The instrumental case in Latvian declension (one of the three Baltic languages, alongside Lithuanian and Old Prussian) can have several meanings:
- It can indicate the instrument (of an action):
- Viņš raksta ar spalvu
- "He writes with a pen".
- It can be used to indicate someone or something accompanying an action. In this case, :
- Viņa dziedāja ar meitu
- "She sang with a girl".
Uralic
Hungarian
The instrumental case is present in the Hungarian language, where it serves several purposes. The main purpose is the same as the above, i.e. the means with which an action occurs. It has a role in the -(t)at- causative form of verbs, that is, the form of a verb that shows the subject caused someone else to action the verb. In this sense, the instrumental case is used to mark the person that was caused to execute the action expressed by the verb. It is also used to quantify or qualify words such as 'better' or 'ago', such as sokkal jobban 'much better' (literally 'with-much better'); hét évvel ezelőtt 'seven years ago' (literally 'seven with-years before this').
In Hungarian the instrumental and comitative case look the same, see Instrumental-comitative case.
See the links section below for a more detailed article.
Finnish
Finnish has a historic, marginal instructive case (-n), but in practice the adessive case (-lla/-llä) is used instead outside lexicalised fixed expressions, even though the adessive literally means 'on top', e.g. vasaralla 'using a hammer' (instrumental meaning) or 'on a hammer' (locative meaning). (Vasaroin 'using hammers' is plausible and understandable, but not common in use.)
Uto-Aztecan
Nahuatl
Turkic
Turkish
Turkish uses the conjunction ile ("with"), and its suffixed form -(y)lA (realised as -(y)la or -(y)le, depending on the dominant vowel of the noun—see vowel harmony) to indicate the instrumental case. For example, in the sentence Arabayla geldi 'he came by (the use of a) car', araba means 'car' and arabayla means 'by (the use of a) car, with a car'.
The original
Japanese
In Japanese, the post-positional particle で de indicates the instrumental case.
刀で
katana-de
katana-INSTR
敵を
teki-wo
foe-DO
斬る。
kiru.
slay.PRES
'(I) slay (my) foe with a katana.'
Northeast Caucasian
Vainakh
The instrumental in the Vainakh languages of the North Caucasus, comprising Chechen and Ingush, is denoted by the -ца / -аца / -ица (-tsa / -atsa / -itsa) suffix to describe an action which is done with an object:
Аса
Asa
"I
Бахьамица
Bahamitsa
with (a) quill pen
Кехатт
Kekhatt
(the) letter
йазздир.
yazzdir.
wrote.
The nominative Baham changes its ending to become Bahamitsa:
- Бахьам = pen → Бахьамица = with a pen
- Бахьамица йазздир (bahamitsa yazzdir) Wrote with a pen.
References
- ^ "Instrumental Case | Department of Classics". classics.osu.edu. Retrieved 2023-12-10.
- ^ doi:10.1075/sigl.3.
- ISBN 0-89148-079-X.
- ^ Herbert Weir Smyth. Greek Grammar. par. 1279: composite or mixed cases.
- ^ Andrew Garett, "Convergence in the formation of Indo-European subgroups: Phylogeny and chronology", in Phylogenetic methods and the prehistory of languages, ed. Peter Forster and Colin Renfrew (Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research), 2006, p. 140, citing Ivo Hajnal, Studien zum mykenischen Kasussystem. Berlin, 1995, with the proviso that "the Mycenaean case system is still controversial in part".