The aim of this volume is to bring non-syntactic factors in the development of case into the eye of the research field, by illustrating the integral role of pragmatics, semantics, and discourse structure in the historical development of morphologically marked case systems. The articles represent fifteen typologically diverse languages from four different language families: (i) Indo-European: Vedic Sanskrit, Russian, Greek, Latin, Latvian, Gothic, French, German, Icelandic, and Faroese; (ii) Tibeto-Burman, especially the Bodic languages and Meithei; (iii) Japanese; and (iv) the Pama-Nyungan mixed language Gurindji Kriol. The data also show considerable diversity and include elicited, archival, corpus-based, and naturally occurring data. Discussions of mechanisms where change is obtained include semantically and aspectually motivated synchronic case variation, discourse motivated subject marking, reduction or expansion of case marker distribution, case syncretism motivated by semantics, syntax, or language contact, and case splits motivated by pragmatics, metonymy, and subjectification. (publisher's book announcement) This volume is an important collection of in-depth studies dealing with case evolution, case variation, case syncretism and case loss in a variety of languages. As contributions to the volume convincingly show, the evolution of case systems cannot be explained in syntactic terms exclusively, but it is guided by a variety of factors among which semantic, pragmatic, and discourse factors play an important role. The volume contributes not only to the field of historical linguistics but also to linguistic theory insofar as it extends the scope of usage-based theories to diachronic studies. (Andrej Malchukov, Max Planck Institute, Leipzig) This volume brings together empirically rich studies on how factors of syntactic structure, discourse usage, and lexical valency shape the development of case marking in various languages around the world. The diachronic orientation of this research fits well with the 'historical turn' that characterizes modern typology, and the present volume therefore provides a key resource for future research on the typology of case marking and alignment. (Balthasar Bickel, University of Leipzig) (Jóhanna Barðdal and Shobhana L. Chelliah) Part I. Semantically and aspectually motivated synchronic case variation Case variation in Gothic absolute constructions (Tonya Kim Dewey and Yasmin Syed) Some semantic and pragmatic aspects of object alternation in Early Vedic (Eystein Dahl) Part II. Discourse motivated subject marking (Felicity Meakins) How useful is case morphology? The loss of the Old French two-case system within a theory of preferred argument structure (Ulrich Detges) Part III. Reduction or expansion of case marker distribution The development of case in Germanic (Jóhanna Barðdal) (Hanne Martine Eckhoff) (Sturla Berg-Olsen) Verb classes and dative objects in Insular Scandinavian (Jóhannes Gísli Jónsson) Transitive adjectives in Japanese (Daniela Caluianu) Part IV. Case syncretism motivated by syntax, semantics or language contact Patterns of development, patterns of syncretism of relational morphology in the Bodic languages (Michael Noonan) The evolution of local cases and their grammatical equivalent in Greek and Latin (Silvia Luraghi) Argument structure and alignment variations and changes in Late Latin (Michela Cennamo) (Hans C. Boas) Part V. Case splits motivated by pragmatics, metonymy and Subjectification Semantic role to new information in Meithei (Shobhana L. Chelliah) (Misumi Sadler)