Labels for local cases

Local cases

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

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
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.	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		behind		from behind		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.

^  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.