SIL Electronic Book Reviews 2007 - 004 Theories of case

That is the way Miriam Butt begins her book. Apparently, she felt that the quote fits her introduction to case theory within grammatical traditions (Latin grammar is one) and their relationship to various notions of case within modern theoretical linguistics. In her introduction to the book, Butt states “...several issues must be dealt with. One is the issue of what “case” really means and what language phenomena should be considered case. Another is the question as to which historically motivated assumptions have served to form our current notion of case” (Chapter 1, p. 1). In dealing with grammatical traditions, she primarily discusses the Greek and Roman tradition, but does some comparison with other traditions, e.g. Indian and Arabic (Chapter 2 Foundational Perspectives).