In Indo-Aryan languages, and Eastern Iranian languages, the direct case (abbreviated DIR) is the name given to a grammatical case used with all three core relations: the agent of transitive verbs, the patient of transitive verbs, and the argument of intransitive verbs. Such a case may also be called the nominative case, but some linguists reserve that term for cases that cover other roles or combinations of roles.
In languages of the Philippines and related languages with Austronesian alignment, the direct case, also called the absolutive, is the case of the argument of an intransitive clause, and may be used for either argument (agent or patient) of a transitive clause, depending on the voice of the verb. The other argument of a transitive clause may either be ergative or accusative, or in Tagalog a single case called indirect.
Famous quotes containing the words direct and/or case:
“However strongly they resist it, our kids have to learn that as adults we need the companionship and love of other adults. The more direct we are about our needs, the easier it may be for our children to accept those needs. Their jealousy may come from a fear that if we adults love each other we might not have any left for them. We have to let them know that it’s a different kind of love.”
—Ruth Davidson Bell. Ourselves and Our Children, by Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, ch. 3 (1978)
“If a playwright tried to see eye to eye with everybody, he would get the worst case of strabismus since Hannibal lost an eye trying to count his nineteen elephants during a snowstorm while crossing the Alps.”
—James Thurber (1894–1961)