Semantics of case

This paper presents a framework which connects case assignment with the semantics of argument realization. Broad notions of agency and affectedness are decomposed into more fine-grained semantic properties, loosely based on Dowty??s Proto-Role theory, but conceived in terms of privative opposition and organized into a lattice. This lattice provides a semantic space of participant properties and supports defining hierarchical relations among participant types, interpreted as semantic prominence, as well as topological relations such as ??closeness??, interpreted as semantic similarity between participant types. Cases are defined as connected regions of this space, relating a given case to a structured set of semantic properties. A case system is represented as a semantic system, which embodies oppositions and contrasts, and operates against the backdrop of the general semantics of argument realization, where one can define notions such as maximal agents and maximal patients and represent generalizations from the research on transitivity. Core case markers (e.g. ergative, accusative) are represented as subspaces of the lattice spreading outwards from the maximal agent and maximal patient nodes of the lattice. Case alternations arise when the subspace of the lattice delimited by a predicate??s entailments for an argument is partitioned by different cases, exemplified with the genitive/accusative alternation in Russian occurring with direct objects of certain intensional predicates. This method also provides a treatment of case polysemy, viz. a single case subsuming multiple uses, by relating the diverse uses at the more abstract semantic level of the case??s region on the lattice, demonstrated with non-canonical uses of the dative.     

A case of cranioencephalopagus

A rare case of head accretion of monozygotic girl-twins 6 years of age has been investigated. The common cavity of the endocranium has appeared as a result of accretion of the skull cap bones. The truncal parts of the brain have not any peculiarities, parts of the diencephalon and telencephalon are deformed. In each brain the corpus callosum and fornix are not defined anatomically. A complex configuration of the III ventricle cavity, common for both brains, is formed by means of turned to each other medial surfaces of the thalami and subthalamic parts. Oppositely situating pair of the thalami of both brains is connected by means of the white substance cord. This case is described as an example of cranioencephalopagus (diencephalopagus).