Kasus im Deutschen und Englischen

The comparative study of German and English case systems provides the motivation for a number of modifications to classical generative case theory (Chomsky 1981). In a number of parametric differences between the two languages utilized here for the description of syntactic features peculiar to each, the role of case morphology is such as to effect distinctive morphological licencing of argument relations. English appears as a 'flatter' language than German, which is strongly configurational in character. The variety of functions performed by case morphology in German permits the assumption that single-language case systems consist of category-specific case sub-systems.