Oblique case

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An oblique case (Latin: casus generalis) in linguistics is a noun case of synthetic languages that is used generally when a noun is the object of a verb or a preposition. An oblique case can appear in any case relationship except the nominative case of a sentence subject or the vocative case of direct address.

Languages with a nominative or an oblique case system also contrast with those that have an absolutive or ergative case system. In ergative-absolutive languages, the absolutive case is used for a direct object (the subject will then be in the ergative case); but the absolutive case is also used for the subject of an intransitive verb, where the subject is being passively described, rather than performing an action. Nevertheless, there are ergative-absolutive languages that demonstrate oblique cases; in the Northwest Caucasian languages Adyghe, Kabardian and Ubykh, the oblique case marker serves to mark the ergative case, the dative case, and the object of a verbal applicative.

Bulgarian, an analytic Slavic language, also has an oblique case—or, rather, two of them for pronouns:

Accusative:

• "Kiss me!": целувай ме! (tseluvay me!)
• "Kiss me! (not him)" целувай мен! (tseluvay men!)

Dative:

• "Give me that ball": дай ми тaзи топка (day mi tazi topka)
• "Give that ball to me" дай тaзи топка на мен (day tazi topka na men)

There is also one for masculine nouns with the article:

• "The wind is blowing": Вятърът вее (vyatǎrǎt vee)
• "I despise the wind": Mразя вятъра (mrazya vyatǎra)

In analytic Indo-European languages, the oblique case is a relic of the original, more complex system of noun cases from the common Proto-Indo-European language. Oblique cases appear in the English pronoun set; these pronouns are often called objective pronouns. One can observe how the first person pronoun me serves a variety of grammatical functions:

• as an accusative case for a direct object:

She bit me!

• as a dative case for an indirect object:

Give me the rubber hose!

• as the object of a preposition:

Stop spitting on me!

• and as a disjunctive topic marker:

Me, I like French.

The pronoun me is not inflected differently in any of these uses; it is used for all grammatical relationships except the genitive case of possession and a non-disjunctive nominative case as the subject.

See also

• Objective (grammar)
• Object (grammar)
• Subjective (grammar)
• Quirky subject