A Constrastive Study Of Form And Meaning On Case In English And Russian

English language is changed to much extent historically from a"synthetic"language to an extremely"analytic"language without much case change. And Russian language is all along being a synthetic language with complicated case inflection. Both two languages have case categories in deep constructions. Case is one of indispensible parts in universal language. So it is very significant to contrast case in syntactic and semantic methods. At present, some traditional approaches are adopted which can not solve the problems encountered. Therefore, the present thesis has made tentative exploration of case form and meaning in Russian and English languages from synchronic perspective trying to finding out the deep connotations of case.This thesis consists of five chapters. The first chapter begins the thesis with the introduction of the significance and the statement of the thesis. The second chapter recollects the researches in the old times and the development of the researches including the traditional approaches by Greek and Roman and Arabic linguists and the modern approaches by Roman Jakobson and Fillmore which will provide methods for the analysis of contrast between them. Chapter three introduced the differences and similarities of Russian and English case forms which laid a basic foundation for the analysis of case meanings and their meaning relations. The fourth chapter provided a systematic overview of the semantic analysis of Russian and English cases and indicates the differences between general meaning and particular meaning. Through illustration of examples, the influence on the case meaning due to the different case forms of the same case is clear. Then the conclusion is made: contrasting case in two types of languages in syntactic and semantic ways implies the relationship between form and meaning. The last chapter concludes the essay by the analysis of an example, the poem by Puskin. The inner reasons for their different expression of case meaning can be seen and also the relationship between case form and meaning can be explained. The conclusion part summarizes the theoretical value, shortcomings and the prospects of the study.