 The term case stands for a class of relational categories applicable to noun inflection reflecting all the roles played by nouns in larger structures, for example in sentences. The notion of case can be divided into two categories. The direct case, also referred to as grammatical or syntactic case, and the oblique case, also referred to as semantic case. The direct case is used to mark the basic syntactic function subjects and objects. The oblique case marks a variety of semantic functions. Let's look at the direct case first. There are two possible direct case marking systems. In the accusative case marking system, subjects are generally marked by the nominative and objects of transitive verbs by the accusative case. This system can be found in most of the Indo-European languages. The ergative case marking system, by contrast, draws a distinction between the case marking of the subjects of intransitive and transitive verbs. The Caucasian languages, for example Georgian, typically use ergative case systems. Cross-linguistically, there are six direct cases. The nominative, the accusative, the absolutive and the ergative case for subjects and direct objects. And the dative and the genitive case for indirect objects. The oblique case is used to mark a range of functions, for example local and spatial functions. Oblique cases have more independent semantic content than direct cases and they are less dependent on structural roles. Nevertheless, some of the direct cases can serve oblique functions as well. German, for example, marks prepositional phrases with the accusative, dative or genitive depending on semantic factors.