Labels for local cases
Local cases [1]
The usual labels for local are cases built on the model of the Latin ablātīvus 'ablative' which is made up of the preposition ab 'from' plus a stem lātīvus the root of which is lāt, which is used for the perfect participle of ferō 'I bear'. Other labels are formed by varying the preposition or by combining prepositions with the stem essīvus from esse 'to be'.
| Latin root | Meaning | Case label | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| ad | 'to' | allative | 'to(wards) (the exterior of)' |
| in | 'into' | illative | 'into' |
| ab | 'from' | ablative | 'from (the exterior of)' |
| e(x) | 'out of | elative | 'from (the inside of)' |
| super | 'above' | superlative | 'to the top of' |
| trans | 'through' | translative | 'through' |
| per | 'through' | perlative | 'through, along' |
| essive | 'at (cf. locative)' | ||
| in | 'in' | inessive | 'in(side)' |
| ad | 'to' | adessive | 'at' |
| super | 'above' | superessive | 'above' |
| sub | 'under' | subessive | 'below' |
There are other local cases and labels for local cases as well, but these are the most common, except that the case covering the 'at' function is more commonly called locative, while essive is used for a case that carries the meaning of a temporary state of being, often equivalent to the English "as a...".
Table of labels for local cases [2]
Please mark tentative or doubtful labels with a query (e.g. ?translative ) and newly coined labels with an asterisk (e.g. *preterlative !
| Type of location | A. at rest | B. motion to | C. motion from | D. motion past | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | general | at | locative | to | lative | from | separative | past | *preterlative[3] |
| 2. | proximate | near (to) | adessive | near | allative | from near | ablative | near | |
| 3. | interior | in(side) | inessive | in(to) | illative | out of | elative | through | ?translative[4] |
| 4. | exterior | outside | up to | ?terminative | away from | ?egressive | past | prolative | |
| 5. | anterior | in front of | in front of | from in front of | in front of | ||||
| 6. | posterior | behind | *postessive | behind | *postlative | from behind | *depostlative | behind | |
| 7. | superior | above/over | *supraessive | above | *supralative | from above | *desuperlative | over | |
| 8. | superior-contact | on | superessive | on(to) | sublative | off | over | ||
| 8a. | surface | on | on(to) | off | delative | over/across | |||
| 9. | inferior | below/under | *subteressive, *infraessive | below/under | *subterlative, *infralative | from under | *desubterlative, *deinfralative | under | |
| 10. | inferior-contact | under | subessive | under | from under | under | |||
| 11. | lateral | beside | apudessive | beside | from beside | past | |||
| 12. | lateral-contact | on | pertingent | on(to) | off | over, along | prolative | ||
| 13. | citerior | on this side of | ?cislocative | to this side of | ?cislative | from this side of | *?ecislative | on this side of | |
| 14. | citerior-contact | on this side of | to this side of | from this side of | on this side of | ||||
| 15. | ulterior | beyond | beyond | from beyond | beyond | ||||
| 16. | ulterior-contact | on the other side of/across | across | from across | on the other side of | ||||
| 17. | medial (2) | between | between | from between | between | ||||
| 18. | medial (3+) | among | among | from among | through | prolative | |||
| 19. | circumferential | - | - | - | round | ||||
| 20. | citerior-anterior | opposite | opposite | from opposite | on the other side | ||||
| 21. | interior (long object) | through/along | |||||||
| 22. | exterior (long object) | past/along | prosecutive | ||||||
| 23. | superior | along (above) | |||||||
| 24. | superior-contact (long object) | along (on top of) | |||||||
| 24a. | surface (long object) | along | ?vialis | ||||||
| 25. | inferior (long object) | along (under) | |||||||
| 26. | inferior-contact (long object) | along (under) | |||||||
Notes
^ Source: Barry J. Blake, Case, Cambridge: Camb. U. P., 1994. ISBN 0521441145 (cased), ISBN 0521446619 (pbk).
^ This is based on a table of possible local semantic functions in the The Lingua Descriptive Studies Questionnaire, section 2.1.1.5.
^ A more conservative label for "general motion past" might be perlative
which more specifically labels motion "over/across a surface" (8a.d.). Such homonymies arise because the more general and more specific cases seldom occur simultaneously in a single language, so that linguists and grammarians have found no need to distinguish them.
^ translative
is more familiar as the label for a case indicating "a change into a state", e.g. in Finnish, but it seems correct to use this label also for "motion through something", at least in terms of the general meaning of Latin trans.
