The dative case is a grammatical case generally used to indicate the noun to
which something is given, as in "Maria gave Jakob a drink". Here, Jakob is an
indirect dative. In general, the dative marks the
indirect object of a verb, although in some instances, the dative is used for
the direct object of a verb pertaining directly to an act of giving something.
This may be a tangible object, or an intangible abstraction.
Sometimes the dative has functions unrelated to giving. In Scottish Gaelic
and Irish, the term dative case is used in traditional grammars to refer to the
prepositional case-marking of nouns following simple prepositions and the
definite article. In Georgian, the dative case also marks the subject of
the sentence with some verbs and some tenses. This is called the dative
construction. The dative was common among early
Indo-European languages and has survived to the present in the Balto-Slavic
branch and the Germanic branch, among others. It also exists in similar forms
in several non-Indo-European languages, such as the Uralic family of languages,
and Altaic languages. In some languages, the dative case has assimilated the
functions of other now-extinct cases. In Ancient Greek, the dative has the
functions of the Proto-Indo-European locative and instrumental as well as
those of the original dative. Under the influence of English, which
uses the preposition "to" for both indirect objects and directions of
movement, the term "dative" has sometimes been used to describe cases
that in other languages would more appropriately be called lative.
Etymology "Dative" comes from Latin cāsus datīvus,
a translation of Greek δοτικὴ πτῶσις, dotikē ptôsis, from its use with the
verb didónai "to give". Dionysius Thrax in his Art of Grammar also refers to it
as epistaltikḗ "for sending", from the verb epistéllō "send to", a word from
the same root as epistle. English
The Old English language, current until approximately sometime after the time of
the Norman Conquest in 1066, had a dative case; however, the English case
system gradually fell into disuse during the Middle English period, when in
pronouns, the accusative and dative merged into a single oblique case that
was also used for all prepositions. This conflation of case in Middle and Modern
English has led most modern grammarians to discard the "accusative" and "dative"
labels as obsolete, often using the term "objective" for oblique.
= Set expressions= While the dative case is no longer very
common in modern English usage, it survives in a few set expressions. One
good example is the word "methinks", with the meaning "it seems to me". It
survives in this fixed form from the days of Old English, in which it was
constructed as "[it]" + "me" + "thinks" ranka -> sg. rankai, pl. rankoms; viltis
-> sg. vilčiai, pl. viltims; sūnus -> sg. sūnui, pl. sūnums; vanduo -> sg.
vandeniui, pl. vandenims. Adjectives in the dative case receive
pronominal endings: tas geras vaikas -> sg. tam geram vaikui, pl. tiems geriems
vaikams. The dative case in Latvian underwent
further simplifications - the original masculine endings of both nouns and
adjectives have been replaced with pronominal inflections: tas vīrs -> sg.
tam vīram, pl. tiem vīriem. Also, the final "s" in all Dative forms has been
dropped. The only exception is personal pronouns in the plural: mums, jums. Note
that in colloquial Lithuanian the final "s" in the dative is often omitted, as
well: time geriem vaikam. In both Latvian and Lithuanian, the main
function of the dative case is to render the indirect object in a sentence: aš
duodu vyrui knygą; es dodu [duodu] vīram grāmatu - I am giving a book to the man.
The dative case can also be used with gerundives to indicate an action
preceding or simultaneous with the main action in a sentence: jam įėjus, visi
atsistojo - when he walked in, everybody stood up, lit. to him having walked in,
all stood up; jai miegant, visi dirbo - while she slept, everybody was working,
lit. to her sleeping, all were working. In modern standard Lithuanian, Dative
case is not required by prepositions, although in many dialects it is done
frequently: iki šiai dienai, iki šios dienos - up until this day.
In Latvian, the dative case is taken by several prepositions in the singular and
all prepositions in the plural: sg. bez tevis ~ pl. bez jums; sg. pa ceļu ~ pl.
pa ceļiem. Armenian
In modern Eastern Armenian, the dative is attained by adding any article to the
genitive: dog = շուն
GEN > շան with no articles DAT > շանը or շանն with definite
articles DAT > մի շան with indefinite article
DAT > շանս with 1st person possessive article
DAT > շանդ with 2nd person possessive article
There is a general tendency to view -ին as the standard dative suffix, but only
because that is its most productive form. The suffix -ին as a dative marker
is nothing but the standard, most common, genitive suffix -ի accompanied
by the definite article -ն. But the dative case encompasses indefinite
objects as well, which will not be marked by -ին:
Definite DAT > Ես գիրքը տվեցի տղային: Indefinite DAT> Ես գիրքը տվեցի մի տղայի:
The main function of the dative marking in Armenian is to indicate the receiving
end of an action, more commonly the indirect object which in English is
preceded by the preposition to. In the use of "giving" verbs like give, donate,
offer, deliver, sell, bring... the dative marks the recipient. With
communicative verbs like tell, say, advise, explain, ask, answer... the
dative marks the listener. Other verbs whose indirect objects are marked by the
dative case in Armenian are show, reach, look, approach...
Eastern Armenian also uses the dative case to mark the time of an event, in
the same way English uses the preposition at, as in Meet me at nine o'
clock. Sanskrit
The dative case is known as the "fourth case" in the usual procedure in the
declension of nouns. Its use is mainly for the indirect object as Sanskrit has
seven other cases including an instrumental. The term "dative" is
grammatically similar to the Sanskrit word "datta". "Datta" means "gift" or
"the act of giving". Non-Indo-European languages
= Hungarian= As with many other languages, the dative
case is used in Hungarian to show the indirect object of a verb. For example,
Dánielnek adtam ezt a könyvet. It has two suffixes, -nak and -nek; the
correct is selected by vowel harmony. The personal dative pronouns follow the
-nek version: nekem, neked, etc. This case is also used to express "for"
in certain circumstances, such as "I bought a gift for Mother".
In possessive constructions the nak/nek endings are also used but this is NOT
the dative form = Finnish=
Finnish does not have a separate dative case. However, the allative case can
fulfill essentially the same role as dative, beyond its primary meaning of
directional movement. For example: He lahjoittivat kaikki rahansa köyhille
= Tsez= In the Northeast Caucasian languages,
such as Tsez, the dative also takes the functions of the lative case in marking
the direction of an action. By some linguists, they are still regarded as
two separate cases in those languages, although the suffixes are exactly the
same for both cases. Other linguists list them separately only for the
purpose of separating syntactic cases from locative cases. An example with the
ditransitive verb "show" is given below: The dative/lative is also used to
indicate possession, as in the example below, because there is no such verb as
"to have". As in the examples above, the
dative/lative case usually occurs in combination with another suffix as
poss-lative case; this should not be regarded as a separate case, however, as
many of the locative cases in Tsez are constructed analytically; hence, they
are, in fact, a combination of two case suffixes. See Tsez language#Locative
case suffixes for further details. Verbs of perception or emotion also
require the logical subject to stand in the dative/lative case. Note that in
this example the "pure" dative/lative without its POSS-suffix is used.
See also Dative construction
Declension in English Double dative
References External links
German dative case A lesson covering the dative case in the German language
Hungarian dative case from www. HungarianReference.com
Russian Dative: [1], [2], [3]