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This paper suggests a functional definition for each of the four central case categories (or the four central syntactic functions of the noun) in the Standard Average European (SAE) languages, i.e. the subject/nominative, the direct object/accusative, the indirect object/dative, and the adnominal complement/genitive. In contrast to traditional approaches, which are normally based on homogeneous sets of semantic case roles indifferently situated on the propositional level of the meaning of a sentence, this paper starts from a prototypicalist perspective and tries to relate the four case categories or syntactic functions to four fundamental communicative tasks that nouns may fulfil in an utterance : a discourse function (topic) for the subject/nominative, an interpersonal function (concerned person) for the indirect object/dative, a propositional function (immediate argument) for the direct object/accusative, and a referential function (basis of « apprehension ») for the adnominal NP/genitive. The classical semantic case roles, on the other hand, are regarded as semantic components of the verbal lexemes, and the apparent systematic correlation between certain case roles and certain syntactic functions/surface cases is seen merely as an effect of affinity between the semantic roles and the postulated communicative functions.