Noun – Special uses of the accusative

After coming a day’s journey, Jesus’ parents stop and look for him before turning around. Just as the temporal use of the accusative must have a noun referring to a time, the distance accusative must have a noun referring to a distance, as in ἡμέρας ὀδόν ‘a day’s journey.’ Combining this with a motion verb specifies the distance the subject has moved.

In both the temporal and spatial accusatives, there is a necessary element of meaning associated with the verb that is further explicated. If one ‘stays’ somewhere, it must be for a length of time. If one ‘comes’, there must be some movement. Similarly, cognate accusatives refer to accusatives that share a root with the verb (the translation given is overly-literal to demonstrate how this works – such a translation is not recommended!):

Whenever someone engages in the verb χαίρω ‘rejoice’, they must necessarily express χαράν ‘joy.’ This is a necessary component of meaning associated with the verb. It is, therefore, unnecessary to have the object χαράν; indeed, it is normally lacking. What makes χαράν acceptable here is that it is modified by μεγάλην to indicate the type of rejoicing happening. Indeed, this is the hallmark of cognate accusatives – they explicate the nature of the eventuality in some way (like temporal accusatives explicate the time of temporal verbs, and spatial accusatives explicate the location in verbs of motion). Although the verb ἐχάρησαν already implies that χαράν is expressed, it does not, however, imply χαρὰν μεγάλην ‘great rejoicing,’ which is why it is acceptable as an object of ἐχάρησαν.

Verb meaning helps determine the interpretation of the accusative. While verbs selecting for accusative case often involve a change of state for the accusative-marked noun, this is not a necessary condition for accusative case to surface, and some accusative nouns are used because they are used to explicate a property of the verb. In this sense, accusative case can modify the properties of the eventuality referred to by the verb, i.e. it is essentially adverbial in nature.