Case: case
| Values: | Abe | Abl | Com | Cmp | Dat | Ela | Gen | Ill | Ine | Lat | Loc | Nom | Prl | Tem | Tra |
Case is a grammatical category determined by the syntactic or semantic function of a noun or pronoun. Discussion:
Case is an inflectional feature of nouns and other parts of speech (adjectives, numerals, pronouns, postpositions) that are noun phrase heads.
Case helps specify the role of a complex noun phrase in a sentence. Here, the term complex noun phrase is used to provide a syntactic delimitation and thereby distinguish between noun phrases versus single-word adverbs in adverbial phrases. The various cases have different distributions as basic or indefinite cases (1–15) in relation to their definite singular (-10), definite plural (-13) and possessive (-12) paradigms.
Erzya morphology distinguishes fifteen cases:
Abe, Abl, Com, Cmp, Dat, Ela, Gen, Ill, Ine, Lat, Loc, Nom, Prl, Tem, Tra
(this ordering is alphabetical, some authors use different names or even numbers for identifying these cases.)
Abe: abessive
Examples
- [myv] Кискась азортомо “The dog is without a master”
Abl: ablative
In Erzya the ablative case is used to express (1) standard of comparison, (2) theme of discussion, (3) manipulation point of the direct object, (4) in quantification of the object with verbs of consumption eat, drink and breath, (5) beginning of path, (6) it has a considerative use denoting something given in exchange for something else…
Examples
- [myv] Нюрадо сэрей “taller than Nyura”
- [myv] кортыть Инечиде “they are talking about Easter”
- [myv] саизе эйкакшонть кедте “She took the child by the hand”
- [myv] ней лекси ванькс коштто “now it is breathing fresh air”
- [myv] педе-пес “from end to end”
- [myv] ярмакто макссь тенек ярсамопель “he/she gave us food for money”
Com: comitative
Examples
- [myv] Сыргасть веленек “They set off the whole village”
Cmp: comparative
In Erzya the comparative case is used to indicate `(about) the size of X’.
Examples
- [myv] Кискась вазошка “The dog is the size of a calf”
Dat: dative
Examples
- [myv] Цёрынентень макссть кискалевкс. “They gave the boy a puppy.”
Ela: elative
Examples
- [myv] Кискась лиссь кудосто “The dog went out of the house”
Gen: genitive
The genitive in Erzya indicates the possessor. It is also one of the morphological markers for direct object and adpositional complement. In the indefinite declension the genitive, when attached to words with material source or origin referents, the resulting form is considered by many grammarians as an adjectival derivation form.
Examples
- [myv] минек кудонок “our house”
- [myv] минек кудось “our house” (often contrastive by nature, i.e. not your house.)
- [myv] андынек кисканть “we fed the dog”
- [myv] кискась пансь псаканть мельга “the dog chased after the cat”
Ill: illative
Examples
- [myv] Кискась совась кудос “The dog went into the house”
Ine: inessive
In Erzya the inessive is used to express (1) location inside of something, (2) being in direct contact with, (3) use as an instrument
Examples
- [myv] Кискась ашти кудосо “The dog is at homed”
- [myv] Цёрынкась ашти картуз прясонзо “The boy sits with a visored hat on his head.”
- [myv] Тейтересь сёрмады толгасо “The girl is writing with a quill.”
Lat: lative
Examples
- [myv] Тонавтыцясь сыргась школав “The teacher left for school”
Loc: locative
Examples
- [myv] Эйкакштнэ аштить лия ёно “The children are off in a different direction”
Nom: nominative
The base form, typically used as a citation form (lemma). The nominative form is used in the morphosyntactic funtion of subject and predicate. While the definite declension usually indicates topic (subject) function, the indefinite declension often appears in presentation of new information, such as in existential sentences. Possessor indexing on the nominative allows for both interpretations.
The indefinite nominative singular is one of the complement forms for postpositional constructions; the others being the indefinite and definite genitive forms.
The indefinite nominative singular and plural are used as indefinite object forms; the others being the indefinite and definite genitive forms.
Examples
- [myv] шабрасо од киска “there is a new dog at the neighbor’s”
- [myv] монь од псакам “I have a new cat”
- [myv] кискась чийни “the dog is running around”
Prl: prolative
In Erzya the prolative is used to express multipoint reference. (1) When used with verbs of motion, this would make its use similar to the perlative in Warlpiri. (2) When the verbal construction expresses something stationary, it express distributive location. (3) When it refers to an end point, it acts as a distributive goal. (4) When it refers to approximate location, it serves as a marker for non-precise location…
Examples
- [myv] Ломантне ютасть янга “The people walked along the path”
- [myv] Цецятне касыть кудо икельга “The flowers are growing (along) the front of the house”
- [myv] Ломантне тусть кудова “The people left for home, each to his or her own”
- [myv] Ведесь кумажава “The water is up to (about) the knees”
Tem: temporalis
Examples
- [myv] Виев даволнэ лоткинек лелянь кедьс “During a strong rain fall, we stopped at my brother’s.”
Tra: transative
In Erzya the transitive can be used in both the noun phrase and the verbal clause. In the verbal clause it can express (1) change of state and (2) essive temporary state. (3) In the noun phrase it marks a potential change of state.
Examples
- [myv] Кудонть артынек пижекс “We painted the house green” (it was a different color before)
- [myv] Ялгам совась инжекс “My friend came to visit (as a visitor)”
- [myv] Кудокс чокштнэнь кандынек латалов “We carried the logs for the house under the roof.”
Case in other languages: [am] [apu] [arr] [bej] [bg] [cs] [el] [eme] [en] [es] [ess] [et] [fi] [ga] [gn] [grc] [gub] [hu] [hy] [ka] [kmr] [koi] [kpv] [ky] [mdf] [myu] [myv] [pcm] [pt] [qpm] [ru] [sl] [sv] [tl] [tpn] [tr] [tt] [u] [uk] [urb] [urj]