Semantics of case forms in the Chechen language

The article presents a comprehensive functional-semantic analysis of the case system of the Chechen language. The research aims to provide a comprehensive description of the system of semantic meanings of case forms in the Chechen language within their functional-syntactic aspect. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that a systematic reconstruction of the semantic meanings of Chechen case forms has been carried out for the first time within a functional-semantic framework; their semantic-syntactic functions in utterance structure have been clarified, and patterns of interaction between case meanings and prosodic and contextual factors have been identified based on linguistic data. The results demonstrate that the nominative case exhibits pronounced multifunctionality and can realize both the function of an intransitive subject and that of a logical object with transitive verbs. The genitive case is shown to perform a system-forming role, participating in the formation of oblique case forms and expressing a wide range of attributive, possessive, and subject-related meanings. It has also been established that the dative, instrumental, material, locative, and comparative cases display a high degree of semantic variability and are closely related to the valency characteristics of verbs.