Конструктивный синтаксис (структурный)

The category of case

Case is the morphological category of the noun showing the relations of the nounal referent to other objects. A peculiar category of case has developed in modern English. It is realized by the opposition of the unmarked "common" case (direct case) and the only "oblique" (косвенный) case form. The possessive (genitive) marked by the possessive postpositional particle. As we have already mentioned only animate nouns are characterized by the category of the case. The group of inanimate nouns which are able to acquire the form of the possessive case is rather limited. The following semantic subtypes of the genitive can be distinguished:

1) The genitive of possessor (boy's toy)

2) The genitive of the whole (boy's hand)
3) The genitive of agent (the subject of action) (boy's action)
4) The genitive of patient (the object of action) (the hostage's release)
5) The genitive of destination (women's clothes)
6) The genitive of quantity (a three miles' distance from here)
7) The genitive of qualification (a girl's voice)
8) The adverbial genitive (usually of place and time modification) (yesterday's talk, London's building).
As is clear from the description given the genitive does not always denote "possession" that's why the term "genitive" is more accrued that the term "possessive" those both of them are widely used in linguistics.
Sometimes all the semantic types of the genitive are united into two groups: those denoting possession and those denoting qualification. This subdivision is grammatically relevant because in the first case the articles and attributes modify the noun in the genitive case itself, for example, the young man's son; in the second case they modify the noun which follows the one in the genitive case, for example, a pleasant five minutes' work.

Лекция 5 (14.10.15)
The category of the article
The article is a determiner (определитель), a unit which determines a noun. Unlike other determines (the lexical means of determination: that, some, any, etc.) it is so general that it has become the grammatical means of determination. When no lexical determiner is used a noun is obligatory modified either by a definite article (the) or an indefinite article (a, an) or by a zero article. The English articles maybe considered at least from two different points of view.