casedeterminer

A case determiner is a linguistic term for a determiner that encodes the grammatical case of the noun phrase it accompanies. In languages with rich case systems, determiners may inflect for case themselves or agree with the noun in case, number, and gender. This contrasts with systems where case is marked primarily on the noun, on adjectives, or by prepositions, while determiners remain invariant.

Cross-linguistic distribution varies. In many Germanic and certain Slavic languages, definite and indefinite articles or demonstratives show explicit case forms that align with the noun’s role in the sentence. For example in German: der Mann (nominative singular masculine), den Mann (accusative), dem Mann (dative), des Mannes (genitive). The form of the determiner signals the noun’s case, helping to mark syntactic relations and agreement within the noun phrase. In languages with little or no article system, case marking on determiners may be limited or absent, with case information carried by the noun itself, by adjectives, or by other markers.

Function and interaction. Case determiners contribute to grammar by clarifying which noun phrase is the subject, direct object, or indirect object, among other roles. They interact with noun inflection and, in some languages, with demonstratives, possessives, and numerals that also display case-related variation. The presence or absence of case-marked determiners is a key feature in the typology of determiner systems and influences parsing, agreement patterns, and referential clarity in both spoken and written language.

In computational linguistics, handling case determiners can affect parsing and morphological analysis, especially for languages in which determiners carry essential case information for correct syntactic structure.