Case is a category of a noun expressing relations between the thing denoted by the noun and other things, or properties, or actions and manifested by some formal sign in the noun itself.

Means rendering case relations in English are: morphological means, word order (context) and prepositions. Thus arises the problem of analytical cases.

The general view is that English nouns have two cases: the common case and the genitive (or possessive case). According to other points of view the number of cases in English is more than two, or there are no cases with the English noun.

a) the morpheme –'s is mostly attached to individual nouns, in comparison with noun-groups (96 per cent). Besides, such groups can be sometimes easily treated as one word: a good-for-nothing-young-man's hat.

b) its meaning is a typical case meaning – 'the relation of a thing denoted by a noun to other things denoted by other words'.

c) the zero form of the possessive case with some plural nouns (e. g. boy's ― boys') can not serve as a counterargument against the existence of cases in English because: the meaning of the zero morpheme in the plural is identical with that of the singular; their distribution is complementary.

d) the fact that the meaning of the possessive case limits its usage only proves that (not like prepositions) it cannot function freely but only to reveal a certain category meaning. Theoretically it is possible with all nouns.

e) phonetically it differs from prepositions in not having a vowel in its structure which does not allow the morpheme –'s to function independently.

G.N. Vorontsova, B.A. Ilyish–'s is not a case morpheme:

a) the use of –'s is optional. One can equally use my sister's and of my sister. (Cf. Russ. моей сестры).

b) the group of nouns to which –'s can be attached is limited. This group includes nouns denoting living beings (e. g. the cat's paws), time (e. g. a week's delay), and some substantivized adverbs (e. g. yesterday's news).

c) one and the same morpheme functions in the singular and in the plural (e. g. child's, children's).

d) in the plural the morpheme is added only to the old plural forms (oxen's).

e) –'s is applied not only to nouns but also to adverbs (e. g. yesterday's events), word groups (e. g. my brother-in-law's visit), clauses (e. g. the man I saw in the morning's face).

Max Deutschbein, found out four cases in English: nominative, genitive, dative and accusative. 'of the book' present an analytical genitive case, 'to the man' – analytical dative case. Arguments contradicting this theory.

· combinations with prepositions are not analytical forms because the first element, the preposition, is not devoid of lexical meaning.

· if we include all possible word-combinations with prepositions into the system of cases the number of cases will seem unlimited.

· the choice of prepositions is often a personal matter of the speaker.

· analytical forms are usually included into the paradigms containing synthetic forms: read – reads – is reading. Prepositional constructions are usually synonymous with synthetic forms. e. g. my mother's sister = the sister of my mother. 'a friend of John's' present double-case forms then.

The category of case covers:

1)       names of persons: the boy's ball

2)       collective nouns: the team's success

3)       names of higher animals: the horse's tail

4)       nouns denoting periods: three days' journey

5)       geographical names and names of institutions: London's population, the school's history

6)       set phrases: at a stone's throw

Types of relations expressed by the Genitive case:

1)       possession: the student's book, Mary's dress

2)       subjective genitive: the boy's answer (= the boy answered)

3)       objective genitive: the boy's punishment (= somebody punished the boy)

4)       quantitative: three miles' distance

5)       qualitative (descriptive): a woman's voice

6)       genitive of origin (authorship): Shakespeare's poetry

7)       genitive of social relations: John's wife.