Accusative
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The accusative is a case, and the name stems from the Latin word accusatus 'accused', which is a wrong translation of the hellenic word for "object". The main purpose of the accusative is to indicate the direct object of an transitive verb/predicate. Languages which have an accusative normally don't need a fixed word order, since it is possible to distinguish between subject and object because of special words or endings. Another function (often found in Indo-European languages) is to indicate the object towards which motion occurs. It also can be used for special constructions in individual languages, such as extent in time in Latin and Greek.
Example for object-indicating accusative:
Esperanto:
Mi amas vin.
{{Mi am'as} vi'n}.
{{I love'present_tense} you'accusative}.
I love you.
Because of the accusative it's also possible to say
Vin amas mi. or
Vin mi amas. or
Mi vin amas. or
Amas vin mi. or
Amas mi vin.
without changing the meaning of the sentence.
Also the English language has an accusative, but only in pronouns, the accusative of the noun being replaced by fixed word order (SPO).
| Nominative | Accusative |
|---|---|
| I | me |
| he | him |
| she | her |
In the following German sentence (1) 'den Mann' is accusative (denoted by 'den' acc.sg.m. of 'der' nom.sg.m.) because of its undergoing of the situation. 'Die Frau' is doing the action.
(1) Die Frau sieht den Mann.
The situation is different in passive situations. Now, the man is seen but he is doing the verbal action: the man is.
(2) Der Mann wird gesehen.
Accusative System
Languages which identify the subjects of transitive and intransitive verbs as being in the nominative case, and distinguish the object of the transitive verb as being in the accusative case, are said to have an accusative system. Alternative constructions the ergative, agentive, inverse, and topic systems.
Translations
- Esperanto: akuzativo
- Swedish: ackusativ n
- Portuguese: acusativo m
- Persian: Hâlate Maf'uli. Persian uses the particle râ to show accusative case. Persian has full accusative case as in German.
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