Instrumental

From KneeQuickie

The instrumental case (abbreviated INS) is a grammatical case in nouns that expresses the means or object by which an action is accomplished.

Common usages

The instrumental case is an oblique case, meaning that its uses are not defined by certain elements that separate ergative and nominative case. It generally is used to represent the means by which something is done, or an actual item. It is never used of people.

Proto-Indo-European, and a few of its daughter languges, have the instrumental case. The instrumental, in these languages, is applied to only inanimate nouns. When applied to animate nouns, it can refer to a specific agent who instigated the action, showing a close relation to an agentive case.

In natural languages

In English, the instrumental is generally represented with prepositions, either "with" or sometimes a cognate instrumental.

I cut down the tree with the axe

I drove the car

Basque uses it much more varying, also usng it to mark the topic of a conversation.

Zertaz hitz egiten duzue?

What-INS word making are-2PL?

What are you talking about?

It can also use it to describe what material something is made out of, which is generally the province of the genitive or attributive case.

Zertaz egina da?

what-INS made-art is-it?

What is it made out of?

Some Slavic languages increased its usage to include the arguments of certain prepositions, and as a complement. For instance in Polish, it can be used to refer to what ethnicity a person is.

Jestem finem

is-1S Finn-instr

I am a Finn.

Russian does this also with select verbs, especially referring to future states.

Ja budu prezidentom

I be.PERF-FUT.1S president-INS

I will be the president.