genitiiv

Genitiiv, or genitive, is a grammatical case used in many languages to mark a range of relationships between nouns. It is most commonly associated with possession, but it can also indicate origin, material, description, quantity, or part–whole relationships. In languages with a dedicated genitive case, the form of a noun (and often accompanying articles or adjectives) changes to signal these relations.

Functions and uses

The primary function of the genitive is to express possession or close association: the book’s cover, the mother’s purse. Beyond ownership, the genitive can denote origin or composition (a statue of marble), material (a ring of gold), measurement (three days’ work), or a part of something (the top of the roof). In some languages, the genitive also marks relationships in set phrases or modifies another noun within a noun phrase.

Forms and cross-language variation

Languages differ in how the genitive is realized. Some have a distinct morphological genitive case with specific endings or articles (for example, in German, des Mannes Haus for “the man’s house” in a prepositional sense). In English, there is no separate genitive case; possession is shown either with the possessive ’s or with an of-phrase (the man’s book or the book of the man). Other languages use both approaches, or employ clitic or prepositional strategies to convey genitive meanings.

Examples

English: the cat’s toy, the color of the sky. German: des Mannes Auto (the man’s car). Russian and Latin languages commonly use genitive forms to indicate possession or relatedness through inflection.

See also

Genitive case; possessive construction; grammatical case.