Caseverbs

Caseverbs are a term used in linguistics to refer to verbs that determine or constrain the grammatical case of their core arguments. They are part of case grammar and valency theory, in which the relationship between a verb and its noun phrases is mediated by case marking. Caseverbs may require a particular case for one or more of their complements, or they may license different cases depending on arguments' semantic roles.

In practice, caseverbs often appear in transitive and ditransitive constructions. A typical example is German verbs of giving and helping. For example, ich helfe dem Mann (I help the man) uses the dative for the indirect object, a pattern linked to the verb's subcategorization frame. Similarly, ich schenke dem Freund ein Buch (I give a book to a friend) uses accusative for the thing and dative for the recipient. Russian provides examples such as дать книгу другу, where the verb gives a thing in the accusative and the recipient in the dative.

Caseverbs are language-specific: some languages have many caseverbs with strict requirements for particular cases, while others rely more on prepositional phrases to express similar relations. The term is sometimes replaced with "case-assigning verb" or "case-marking verb" in the literature, and debates exist about whether it should be treated as a cross-linguistic class or as a descriptive label for certain constructions in particular languages.