For instance, kalb 'dog,' is rendered in the Arabic nominative, accusative, and genitive cases, respectively, as kalb-un 'the dog' (as a subject), kalb-an 'the dog' (as an object), and kalb-in '(of) the dog' (as a possessor).
So thank you, Mr. Callahan, for the lessons in the nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive cases.
Nouns in the genitive case function as adjectives.
A noun modifying a second noun is expressed by the genitive case except in the north, where a prepositional phrase is usually preferred.
The indirect object is also expressed by the genitive case (or by the preposition se 'to,' which governs the accusative, as do all prepositions).
The legend, often abbreviated, usually declared the name of the owner or institution; it often began with a cross and the word sigillum, followed by the name in the genitive case.
In addition to this tripartite set of endings, however, there is a set of stems in Arabic (the so-called diptotic stems) that have endings distinguishing only the nominative case and a general accusative and genitive case.
A striking feature of Slavic syntax is the widespread use of possessive adjectives (e.g., Russian Bož'ja milost'divinene mercy') instead of the genitive case of the noun (milost' Boga 'the mercy of God').
Being a noun, it can have a following noun in the genitive case, which, in the older languages at least, is subjective or objective according to whether the verb with which it is linked is intransitive or transitive.
And she relies a little too heavily on the genitive case as a template for metaphor, although she certainly has fun with it: "the bossa nova of dream," "the Kalamazoo of consciousness," "my pelf of wandering passions consumed / by the mealy bugs of time".
Baltic also shares some syntactic features with Slavic; e.g., the genitive case is used in place of the accusative with verbs expressing negation (Lithuanian jis nieko nežino "he does not know anything," Latvian viṇš nekā nezin, Russian on ničego ne znajet).
