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# 7. The cases and their uses

Chapter 2 gave the forms of the six cases. This chapter gives their uses: what the nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive, dative and ablative do in a sentence, and what is left of the locative. The pattern of use is stable from Plautus to Augustine, and the later varieties differ in what replaces it (chapters 14–15). The section numbers refer to Bennett 1918, Part V, chapter II (§§166–232), whose divisions are used here; Allen & Greenough and Gildersleeve & Lodge give the same divisions with different numbers.

## Contents

1. Nominative and vocative
2. Accusative
3. Genitive
4. Dative
5. Ablative
6. Locative and the expression of place and time
7. The cases compared: an overview of the functions
8. How Mova handles it

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## 1. Nominative and vocative

The **nominative** (§§166–170) is the case of the **subject** of a finite verb, of the **predicate noun** or adjective after *sum* and verbs of becoming and seeming (*Dominus meus et Deus meus*, John 20:28), of an **appositive** (*P. Scipio, pontifex maximus*, Cic. *Cat.* 1.3: *Scipio* subject, *pontifex maximus* in apposition), and of the **historical infinitive**. With the verb in the first or second person the subject pronoun is omitted; the case marks a subject, but the subject is carried by the verb ending.

The **vocative** (§171) is the case of address, identical with the nominative except in the singular of the second declension (*-e*). It stands beside an imperative or after an interjection: *Quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra?* (Cic. *Cat.* 1.1), *Pater noster, qui es in cælis* (Matt 6:9); the nominative is used for the vocative in the Vulgate's *Deus, Deus meus* (Ps 21:2), after the Greek, and the nominative form with *-us* replaces *-e* in many medieval texts.

## 2. Accusative

The accusative (§§172–185) is the case of the **direct object** and of the **extent** of an action. It has six main uses.

**(a) Direct object** (§§173–176), either the thing **affected** (*Belgae … Germanis … bellum gerunt*, Caes. *B. G.* 1.1, "they wage war") or the thing **effected** (*urbem condere*, "to build a city"). A **cognate accusative** repeats the verb's meaning (*vītam vīvere*, *pugnam pugnāre*). Many intransitive verbs take a **neuter pronoun or adjective** as accusative of result: *multum valet*, *nihil peccat* (§176), and the poets extend this to adverbial accusatives, as in *multum ille et terris iactatus* (Verg. *Aen.* 1.3, chapter 3 §5). The transitive verb's passive makes the object its subject; the object of an **impersonal passive** is none.

**(b) Two accusatives** (§§177–178): a **predicate accusative** after verbs of making, choosing, calling, showing (*Appellavitque lucem Diem, et tenebras Noctem*, Gen 1:5, "and he called the light Day and the darkness Night"), and an **accusative of the person and of the thing** after verbs of asking and teaching (*rogō tē sententiam*, *docēre aliquem litterās*, §178).

**(c) Accusative of respect** or Greek accusative (§180): *os umerosque deo similis* (Verg. *Aen.* 1.589), "like a god in face and shoulders", with *os umerosque* in the accusative of the part to which the adjective refers. It is frequent in poetry and in Greek-influenced Christian Latin.

**(d) Extent of time and space** (§181): *per annos* or the bare accusative (*tot per annos*, Liv. *praef.*; *quinque annōs*). The Roman date formula *ante diem septimum decimum Kalendas Augustas* ("on the seventeenth day before the Kalends of August") takes the accusative of the month; the charter writes it shortened, *septimo decimo kalendas augustas*, with the ordinal in the ablative and the month in the accusative (`la_llct` train-s1).

**(e) Goal of motion** (§182): with *ad* or *in* (*ad Caesarem*, *in provinciam*), without a preposition for the names of **towns and small islands** and for *domum, rūs* (*Rōmam*, *Athēnās*, *domum*); the Vulgate and later Latin keep the preposition (*in Ægyptum*).

**(f) Exclamation** (§183): the accusative, often with an adjective, after *ō*, *ēheu*, *prō*; *Ō tempora, ō mōrēs!* (Cic. *Cat.* 1.2) can be read so, since *tempora* and *mōrēs* are alike in nominative and accusative.

**(g) The subject of the infinitive** (§184): *Dīcit Caesarem vēnisse*. This accusative is the **accusative-and-infinitive** construction of indirect statement (chapter 10 §4). It also stands in the dependency of a passive verb: *quam Gallos obtinere dictum est* (Caes. *B. G.* 1.1), "which, it has been said, the Gauls occupy".

**(h) Prepositions**: *ad, ante, apud, circum, contrā, inter, per, post, prope, propter, trans, ob, super* and others (chapter 8).

## 3. Genitive

The genitive (§§194–212) is the case of **dependence** on a noun, and also of the object of a few verbs and adjectives. It is mainly a case of **specification** and **belonging**.

**With nouns** (§§195–203):

| use | example | meaning |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **possessive** (§198) | *anno regni eius*, `la_llct` train-s1 | "in the year of his reign" |
| **subjective**: the doer (§199) | *adventus Caesaris* | "the arrival of Caesar" |
| **objective**: the object (§200) | *memor nostrī*; *amor patriae* | "mindful of us"; "love of country" |
| **partitive** (§201) | *quid consilii ceperis*, Cic. *Cat.* 1.1; *plus doloris*, Caes. *B. G.* 1.20 | "what plan"; "more grief" |
| **appositional** (§202) | *urbs Rōmae*, *nōmen rēgis* | "the city of Rome" |
| **quality** (§203) | *vir magnī animī*, *rēs magnī labōris* | "a man of great spirit" |
| **material** (§197) | *māgna vīs auri* | "a great weight of gold" |
| **origin** (§196) | *Gaī fīlius* | "the son of Gaius" |

**With adjectives** (§204): the genitive limits the extent of a quality: *cupidus rērum novārum*, *peritus bellī*, *particeps*, *memor*, *plēnus*, in poetry and late prose with a wide extension (§204.4); the Vulgate has *plenum gratiæ et veritatis* (John 1:14), "full of grace and truth", with the genitive after *plenus*, which is also a classical construction beside the ablative.

**With verbs** (§§205–212):

- **memory and forgetting**: *meminī, oblīvīscor, reminīscor* take the genitive or the accusative;
- **accusing, convicting, acquitting**: the person in the accusative and the **charge in the genitive** (*accūsāre aliquem furtī*, "to accuse someone of theft");
- **impersonals**: *pudet, paenitet, miseret, taedet, piget* take the **accusative of the person** and the **genitive of the cause** (*mē pudet fabulae*);
- ***interest, rēfert***: the person concerned in the genitive (*interest omnium*);
- **verbs of fullness and want** (*implēre, egēre*): the genitive or the ablative;
- **price and value** (§203, §205): the genitive of indefinite price *magnī, plūris, minōris, tantī, quantī* (*magnī aestimāre*).

Of its many uses the genitive of **quality** (also the ablative of quality, §6) and the **partitive** are the most frequent in prose. The genitive is the case most affected by Late and Medieval Latin: the **partitive** and the **possessive** are frequently replaced by *de* + ablative (chapters 14–15), and in the Vulgate the **genitive of Hebrew construct chains** produces the superlative (*Sancta sanctorum*, Heb 9:3) and the "Hebraic genitive" of quality: *filius perditionis* (John 17:12), "a son of perdition", a doomed man.

## 4. Dative

The dative (§§186–193) marks the **person or thing to or for whom** an action is done or a statement is true, and so is the case of the **indirect object**, of **interest** and of **purpose**.

**(a) Indirect object** (§187): *da nobis* (Matt 6:11), *dimitte nobis debita nostra, sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris* (Matt 6:12), *Mandatum novum do vobis* (John 13:34), *filiam suam in matrimonium dat* (Caes. *B. G.* 1.3), "gives him his daughter in marriage": *ei* is the recipient. Verbs of giving, telling, showing, promising, owing take it; so do many intransitive verbs of **favour, help, trust, obedience, harm, command, persuading**: *persuadet eique … dat* (Caes. *B. G.* 1.3) *persuadēre, crēdere, cōnfīdere, parcere, nocēre, imperāre, fāvēre, ignōscere, obsistere, resistere* (Bennett 1918 §187).

**(b) Reference and interest** (§188), the dative of the person "from whose point of view" a statement is true: *quid mihi et tibi est, mulier?* (John 2:4), literally "what to me and to you", "what is that to me and to you?", with *mihi* and *tibi* the dative of reference of the common Greek and Hebrew formula. The **ethical dative** (*mihi*) and the **dative of reference** (*sibi*) have no equivalent in English.

**(c) Possession** (§190): *mihi est liber*, "I have a book", *nomen mihi est*. The possessor is in the dative with *esse*; the classical language otherwise says "I have" with *habeō*, which the later language extends (chapters 14–15).

**(d) Agent** (§189): the person by whom the action is done is in the dative with the **gerundive** (*mihi eundum est*) and sometimes with the perfect passive in poetry. Otherwise the agent is expressed with *ā, ab* + ablative (§5).

**(e) Purpose and double dative** (§191): the dative of the **thing for which** with the dative of the person affected. The two are bound: *quem auxilio Caesari Haedui miserant* (Caes. *B. G.* 1.18), "whom the Aedui had sent to Caesar as help", *novissimis praesidio erant* (Caes. *B. G.* 1.25), "they were a protection for the rear", *Amicitiam populi Romani sibi ornamento et praesidio, non detrimento esse oportere* (Caes. *B. G.* 1.44), "the friendship of the Roman people ought to be an honour and protection to him, not a loss". Words in this pattern: *auxilio, praesidio, saluti, usui, cordi, curae, odio, impedimento, ornamento*.

**(f) With adjectives** (§192): *similis, dissimilis, amicus, inimicus, proximus, idoneus, aptus, utilis, notus*: *deo similis* (Verg. *Aen.* 1.589), *hostibus infestus*; *similis* also takes the genitive.

**(g) With compounds** (§187, note): verbs compounded with *ad, ante, con, in, inter, ob, post, prae, sub, super* often take the dative of the thing: *praeesse exercituī* (*equitatui … Dumnorix praeerat*, Caes. *B. G.* 1.18), *adesse, subesse, antecēdere*.

**(h) Direction** in poetry (§193): *it clamor caelō* (Verg. *Aen.* 5.451, "the shout goes up to heaven") for *ad caelum*, with the dative of the goal, a poetic use that classical prose does not accept.

The dative is the weakest case in the later language: the Romance languages replace it by a preposition (*a, à*) and the Tuscan charters use *ad* with the accusative in this function: *ad parte ecclesie* "to (the benefit of) the church" (train-s450), while the dative as such lingers in names, formulae and set phrases (chapter 15).

## 5. Ablative

The ablative (§§213–232) unites **three Indo-European cases**: the **ablative** proper (separation, source, comparison), the **instrumental** (means, accompaniment, manner, cause) and the **locative** (place, time) (§213). Its uses follow the three origins.

**(a) Separation and source** (§§214–215): with *ā, ab, ē, ex, dē* for persons and places; without a preposition for things after verbs of freeing, lacking, depriving (*līberāre perīculō*, *carēre rē*): *a cultu atque humanitate provinciae longissime absunt* (Caes. *B. G.* 1.1), "they are farthest from the culture and civilisation of the province". **Origin**: *nātus, ortus, ēdītus* with the plain ablative or with *ex* (*nātus patre*).

**(b) Agent** (§216): the person by whom a passive is done, with *ā, ab*: *exercitumque eius ab Helvetiis pulsum* (Caes. *B. G.* 1.7), "and his army beaten by the Helvetii". A thing that acts as agent stands in the plain ablative of means.

**(c) Comparison** (§217, §223): the ablative replaces *quam* when the first term is in the nominative or accusative: *Majorem hac dilectionem nemo habet* (John 15:13); *quam* is used in all other positions (chapter 3 §4).

**(d) Means or instrument** (§218): *Catilinam orbem terrae caede atque incendiis vastare* (Cic. *Cat.* 1.3), "to lay waste the world with slaughter and fire"; *pedibus*, *gladiō*; the **means of a person** (§218.10) with *per* + accusative or *operā*. With *ūtor, fruor, fungor, potior, vescor* the thing used is in the ablative: *quibus opibus ac nervis … uteretur* (Caes. *B. G.* 1.20), "he was using this power and these sinews".

**(e) Cause** (§219): *amōre*, *metū*, *īrā*, *invidiā*; with *ob, propter, ex* for external causes.

**(f) Manner** (§220): with *cum*, the *cum* omitted if an adjective accompanies the noun: *multis cum lacrimis Caesarem complexus obsecrare coepit* (Caes. *B. G.* 1.20), "embracing Caesar, he began to beg with many tears"; *magnā cum cūrā* or *magnā cūrā*; fixed ablatives without *cum* (*iūre, iniūriā, vī, fraude, silentiō*).

**(g) Accompaniment** (§222): *cum* + ablative: *quibuscum continenter bellum gerunt* (Caes. *B. G.* 1.1); *mēcum, tēcum* (chapter 4).

**(h) Quality** (§224): the ablative with an adjective: *homines inimico animo* (Caes. *B. G.* 1.7), "men of hostile mind"; *vir summā virtūte*; it is interchangeable with the genitive of quality (§3), the genitive being used for permanent and the ablative for outward qualities, a difference that is not strict.

**(i) Price** (§225): *magnō*, *parvō*, *vīgintī talentīs* with verbs of buying and selling; the genitive for indefinite price (§3).

**(j) Specification** or respect (§226): *virtūte praecedunt* (Caes. *B. G.* 1.1), "they surpass in courage"; *pedibus aeger*, *nōmine*, *nātū māior*.

**(k) Absolute** (§227): the ablative absolute is treated in chapter 11.

**(l) Place** (§§228–229, §232): *in vinea*, *in terra*, *ex urbe*; the ablative without a preposition for the names of towns and with *locus* modified by an adjective (*eō locō*); source and place from which: *ab urbe*, *dē monte*.

**(m) Time** (§§230–231): **time when** (*illa nocte*, Cic. *Cat.* 1.9, "on that night"; *anno regni eius … primo*, train-s1) and **time within which** (*paulō ante lucem*, *tribus annīs*, *brevī tempore*).

The ablative is the case that carries most of the meaning in Late and Medieval Latin: it takes over the functions of the accusative after prepositions (*cum, ad*), of the genitive (*de*) and of the dative (*ad*) in the charters, so that the same ending *-o*, *-a*, *-e* is used in many positions (chapter 15, §2).

## 6. Locative and the expression of place and time

The locative (§232) survives in a few words: *Romae, Corinthi, Carthagini, domi, humi, ruri, belli, militiae, vesperi*. All other place expressions use the ablative with a preposition. The **three questions of place** are *where?*, *whence?*, *whither?*:

| question | town / small island / *domus*, *rūs* | other nouns |
| --- | --- | --- |
| where? | locative: *Rōmae*, *domī* | *in* + abl.: *in urbe* |
| from where? | ablative alone: *Rōmā*, *domō* | *ab, ex, dē* + abl. |
| to where? | accusative alone: *Rōmam*, *domum* | *ad, in* + acc. |

**Expressions of time:** *when?* ablative; *how long?* accusative (*per* optional); *within what time?* ablative; *how long ago?* *abhinc* + acc.; *annō* with the ordinal for dating a document (*anno regni eius … primo*, train-s1).

## 7. The cases compared: an overview of the functions

| case | main functions | prepositions that take it |
| --- | --- | --- |
| nominative | subject, predicate, apposition | — |
| vocative | address | — |
| accusative | object, extent, goal, subject of the infinitive | *ad, ante, apud, circum, contra, inter, per, post, propter, trans, in* (motion), *sub* (motion) … |
| genitive | belonging, whole, quality, object of a noun | *causa, gratia, ergo* (postpositive) |
| dative | indirect object, interest, purpose, possessor, agent (gerundive) | — |
| ablative | separation, source, agent, means, manner, cause, comparison, specification, place and time, absolute | *ā/ab, cum, dē, ē/ex, prō, prae, sine, in* (rest), *sub* (rest) |
| locative | place where, for small words | — |

## 8. How Mova handles it

**The pipeline (2026-10-22).** The treebank annotates case in FEATS (`Case=Nom|Gen|Dat|Acc|Voc|Abl|Loc`) and encodes its role in the dependency relation; Mova's English parser, trained on LLCT via `en xpos-fill`, is given the PTB-style tag (`NN`, `NNS`, …) without case, so the case is not a feature the parser is given. It is the relation that carries the function: the LLCT train set has the relations `nsubj` (8 897), `obj` (5 141), `obl` (14 104), `obl:arg` (5 474), `nmod` (15 556), `appos` (6 797), `advmod:lmod` (972; a place adverbial, "locative modifier") and `advmod:tmod` (358; a time adverbial). A model that predicts these from the word form and the order must, in effect, learn the ending-to-function mapping of this chapter, and it is measured on dev (LAS 87.35, own tags; 87.80, gold; 2026-10-22).

**UD conventions that differ.** The relation of a noun in the ablative or dative that is **not** an argument is `obl`; an oblique **argument** of the verb (the dative of *persuadet*, the ablative of *utor*) is `obl:arg` in LLCT, a subtype of `obl` that LLCT uses where a treebank without the subtype would write `iobj` or `obl`; LLCT has 26 `iobj` and 5 474 `obl:arg` (train). The genitive is `nmod`. An **ablative absolute** is `advcl:abs`; a comparative with *quam* is `advcl:cmp` (645 in LLCT) or `obl` for an ablative of comparison; a **nominal predicate** with *sum* has the copula as `cop` (1 197) and the noun as the root. UD has a `vocative` relation; LLCT train has none (2026-10-22), so a vocative in a charter is attached by another relation.

**Where it stops.** Case is an input feature to Mova only by way of the treebank, never computed from a word; a Latin analyser that proposes **all** possible cases for a form and lets the syntax choose (a dative/ablative plural *-is*) would be the first piece of Latin morphology. A table of the functions in this chapter and the relations above gives a **gold standard for a check**: for a sample of LLCT sentences, the case of every noun against its relation, to see which functions are not determined by the case (the ablative above all).

**Sources for this chapter.** Bennett 1918 §§166–232 (the divisions and the section numbers); Allen & Greenough 1903, Gildersleeve & Lodge 1895 (paraphrased); examples: Caes. *B. G.* 1.1, 1.3, 1.7, 1.18, 1.20, 1.25, 1.44; Cic. *Cat.* 1.1, 1.3, 1.9; Verg. *Aen.* 1.3, 1.589 (Latin Library); Vulgate Gen 1:5, Matt 6:9–12, John 1:14, 2:4, 13:34, 15:13 (Clementine); UD_Latin-LLCT train-s1, s450.

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