kasus

Kasus, in linguistics, refers to a grammatical category that marks the function of a noun or pronoun within a sentence. In Indonesian-language discussions, the term kasus is used to refer to this concept. Case systems vary widely between languages: some attach markers to nouns or pronouns, others rely on word order and prepositions to signal roles, and some combine both.

Core cases include nominative (subject), accusative (direct object), genitive (possession), and dative (indirect object). Additional cases such as instrumental, locative, ablative, and others appear in various languages. Some languages have complex systems with many cases; others have ergative-absolutive alignment, where the subjects of intransitive verbs and transitive objects share a case, while agents of transitive verbs take a different one.

Function and marking: in synthetic languages, case is marked by endings on nouns or pronouns and often by agreement on adjectives or determiners. In analytic languages, case is expressed with prepositions or word order; pronouns may still show case-like distinctions. Word order interacts with case to convey meaning.

Indonesian languages, including Indonesian, generally have little to no nominal case marking. Relations such as subject or object are usually indicated by word order and prepositions rather than inflection. Pronouns typically appear in fixed forms, and prepositional phrases express possessive or directional relations.

Studying kasus reveals how languages encode grammatical relations, shape syntax, and influence morphological change. The diversity of case systems reflects historical processes such as language contact, phonological change, and typological pressures toward analytic or synthetic structures.