Dative and Genitive Cases

Dative

Function and Forms. The dative object indicates that an action or feeling is directed toward a person or thing to his or its advantage or disadvantage. This function is indicated in two ways- by a simple noun or pronoun, or by a preposition+ the noun or pronoun.

a) Simple Dative. "This woman is making her little son a new coat",

b) Prepositional Dative. " The mother is making a new coat for her boy John".

Genitive

Form. There are four forms of the genitive.

1) S-Genitive "the girl's hat, etc.

2) Of-Genitive. this form is composed of the inflectional preposition of and a noun. This prepositional phrase indicates exactly the same grammatical relation as the simple s-genitive; " the man's son" or " the son of the man".

3) Double Genitive: "a friend of my father's"

4) His -Genitive. In order English instead of an s-genitive a genitive formed with his, her, their, was often used: "John his book", "Mary her book", " the boys their books". This genitive gradually disappeared from the literary language. It survives in popular speech.