Prolative case

Template:Short description In grammar, the prolative case (abbreviated Template:Sc), also called the vialis case (abbreviated Template:Sc), prosecutive case (abbreviated Template:Sc), traversal case, mediative case, or translative case,<ref name=Haspelmath>Haspelmath, Martin. Terminology of Case in Handbook of Case, Oxford University Press, 2006.</ref> is a grammatical case of a noun or pronoun that has the basic meaning of "by way of" or "via".

In Finnish, the prolative case follows an established application in a number of fossilized expressions to indicate "by (medium of transaction)".<ref name="PanuMäkinen--AdvCases">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It can be used in other constructions, but then it does not sound "natural".<ref name="MaijaLänsimäki--Prolative">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Examples would be "postitse" ("by post"), "puhelimitse" ("by telephone"), "meritse" ("by sea"), "netitse" ("over the Internet"). A number of Finnish grammarians classify the prolative form as an adverb because it does not require agreement with adjectives like other Finnish cases.<ref name="Korpela-Finnish-Cases">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> This claim is not true, however, because an adjective will agree with the prolative: "Hän hoiti asian pitkitse kirjeitse" ("He/she dealt with the matter by way of a long letter").Template:Fact

The prolative exists in a similar state in the Estonian language.

The vialis case in Eskimo–Aleut languages has a similar interpretation, used to express movement using a surface or way. For example, in the Greenlandic language {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} 'by ship'<ref>Richard H. Kölbl: Kauderwelsch Band 204, Grönländisch Wort für Wort, Template:ISBN, page 37</ref> or in Central Alaskan Yup'ik {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} 'by river' or {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} 'by sled'.

Basque grammars frequently list the nortzat / nortako case (suffix -tzat or -tako) as "prolative" (prolatiboa).<ref>Check for example: Ilari Zubiri and Entzi Zubiri's Euskal Gramatika Osoa (Bilbao: Didaktiker, 1995); the declension reference Template:Webarchive at the website of the Basque Autonomous Government's Institute for Euskaldunization and Alphabetization of Adults (HABE); etc.</ref> However, the meaning of this case is unrelated to the one just described above for other languages and alternatively has been called "essive / translative",<ref>Jon D. Patrick, Ilari Zubiri: A Student Grammar of Euskara (Munich: Lincom Europa, 2001) [1]</ref> as it means "for [something else], as (being) [something else]"; e.g., hiltzat eman "to give up for dead", lelotzat hartu zuten "they took him for a fool".<ref>Examples (translated from Spanish) given in Luis Baraiazarra's Diccionario 3000 Hiztegia (available online at euskadi.net), under the entry for Spanish "dar" [2].</ref> The meaning "by way of" of the case labelled prolative in the above languages is expressed in Basque by means of the instrumental (suffix -[e]z).

This case is also called the prosecutive case in some languages.<ref name=Haspelmath /> It is found under this name in Tundra Nenets,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> in Old Basque and, with spatial nouns, in Mongolian.<ref>Sechenbaatar [Sečenbaγatur], Borjigin. 2003. The Chakhar dialect of Mongol: a morphological description. Helsinki: Finno-Ugrian society. Template:ISBN</ref>

See also

• Perlative case

Further reading

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References

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