100227 nose szeged cases3
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Contrastive study of the adverbial case functions between Finno-Ugric and Australianlanguages
Masahiko Nose
1. Introduction*
Finno-Ugric languages are known for having a rich case system. According to the
descriptive grammars, Finnish has 15 cases and Hungarian has 18. Iggesens (2005)
typological survey shows that there are some languages with many case markings, and others
without any. He finds the number of cases in all languages by using the multimedia tool, The
World Atlas of Language Structures (Haspelmath, et al.2005). According to his study, there are24 languages with 10 or more cases. In Finno-Ugric, those languages are Estonian, Finnish,
Hungarian, Mordvin, and Udmurt. It might be predicted that there are also several languages
with more than 10 cases in the Australian continent, which are Gooniyandi, Kayardild,
Martuthunira, Nunggubuyu, and Pitjantjatjara. The Finno-Ugric and Australian adverbial cases
in this study are not related to grammatical relations (such as the nominative and dative cases),
nor to locations and spaces (such as the adessive and ablative cases).
First, this study chooses ten sample languages from the Finno-Ugric and Australian
languages, and examines which kinds of cases the sample languages have. Then, after
classifying the cases into grammatical, locative, and adverbial, it investigates usages of the
adverbial cases. Finally, this study contrasts the specific adverbial case usages and functions in
the sample languages, and then explores the common and different points of each language
group.
Finally, I summarize the distributions and possibilities of each groups adverbial case
functions.
2. Case system and sampling
This section illustrates the types of case system and case alignment. I choose the sample
languages of Finno-Ugric and Australian languages. There are two major types of case
systems: the nominative-accusative, and the ergative-absolutive. All Finno-Ugric languages
use the nominative-accusative case. One example is in Hungarian, which is shown below:
(1) Hungarian:Pter olvas-ta a knyv-et.
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Peter read-3pl.past the book-acc
Peter read the book.
Hungarian is a typical nominative-accusative language, and the transitive subject, Pter, does
not require any case markings (unmarked nominative), and the direct object knyv requires
the accusative marker -et. In contrast to Finno-Ugric, most Australian languages are the
ergative-absolutive type. In Eurasia, most languages except those of Caucasus and North India
are the nominative-accusative type, and on the other hand, the Australian languages, except
Martuthunira, Mangarrayi, and Kayardild, are ergative-absolutive. One example of the
ergative-absolutive in Yidiny (Australian) is shown in (2). Here, the form - gu is theergative case marking, and the direct object is marked by the unmarked absolutive.
(2) Yidiny (Dixon 1977:256):
wagaua-gu guda:ga buna:
man-erg dog(abs) hit
The man hit the dog.
Next, we classify cases according to three types: the grammatical, locative, adverbial, and
other cases(cf. Haspelmath 2009:508). We have already observed the major alignment systems:
nominative-accusative, and ergative-absolutive. Such cases are directly related to syntax and
grammatical relationships, and classified as grammatical cases. Grammatical cases include the
nominative, the accusative, the ergative, the absolutive, and dative. Locative cases indicate
location and space. An example is Finnish, which has six kinds of locative cases, as shown in
Table 1. Locative cases can express not only locations and spaces, but also time and some
adverbial meanings.
Table 1: Six locative cases in Finnish (Talo house) Talo-sta (from/in) Talo-ssa (in) Talo-on (into)Talo-lta (from/on) Talo-lla (on) Talo-lle (onto)
The third group, adverbial and other cases, are the cases that do not belong to the
grammatical and locative. For example, the adverbial cases include the instrumental, essive,
and so forth, have the functions of adverbs and are independent of grammatical relations.
The purpose of this study is to contrast the adverbial case markings of Finno-Ugric andAustralian. It chooses six Finno-Ugric and four Australian languages, which are shown below:
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(3) Ten sample languages of this study:
Finno-Ugric: Finnish, Hungarian, Eastern Khanty, Mari, Udmurt, MansiAustralian: Dyirbal, Gooniyandi, Guugu Yimidhirr, Yidiny
In the Finno-Ugric group, I choose several languages from both Finnic and Ugric, but I exclude
Samoyed languages such as Nganasan and Enets. In regard to Australian languages, I pay
attention to the availability of reliable reference grammars, and as a result, I choose four
languages among more than 200 aboriginal Australian languages, as shown in (3).
3. Cases in general and their classifications and examples
This section defines the term case, and clarifies the properties of the adverbial cases that the
study focuses on. First, I refer to a brief definition of case that Blake (1994:1) gives: [C] case
is a system of marking dependent nouns for the type of relationship they bear to their heads.
Traditionally, the term refers to inflectional marking, and typically case marks the relationship
of a noun to a verb at the clause level or a noun to a preposition, postposition, or another noun
at the phrase level. Additionally, Moravchik (2009) reconsiders the definition of case in the
following: [A] case marker is a formal device associated with a noun phrase that signals the
grammatical role of a noun phrase. According to Blake and Moravchik, case marking relates
noun phrases and gives grammatical function(s) by inflection.
Next, I refer to the grammar manuals of the sample languages, examining how many and
which kinds of cases they have, as shown in the following example:
(4) Cases of the sample languages:
i. Finno-Ugric (Finnish, Hungarian, Eastern Khanty, Mari, Udmurt, Mansi)
a. Finnish (15 cases): nominative, genitive, accusative, inessive, elative, illative, adessive,
allative, ablative, essive, partitive, translative, instructive, abessive, comitative
b. Hungarian (18 cases): nominative, accusative, dative, elative, inessive, illative,
delative, superessive, sublative, ablative, adessive, allative, terminative, essive-formal,
instrumental, translative, causal-final, associative
c. Eastern Khanty (nine cases): nominative, lative, locative, ablative, approximative,
translative, instructive-final, comitative-instrumental, abessive
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d. Mari (11 cases): nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, inessive, lative, illative,
ablative, modal-comparative, comitative, caritive
e. Udmurt (15 cases): nominative, accusative, genitive, ablative, dative, caritive,adverbial, instrumental, approximate, inessive, illative, elative, egressive, transitive
(through), terminative
f. Mansi (six cases): nominative, lative, locative, ablative, instrumental, translative
ii. Australian: Dyirbal, Gooniyandi, Guugu Yimidhirr, Yidiny
g. Dyirbal (nine cases): nominative, ergative, instrumental, simple genitive, locative,
general genitive, dative, allative, ablative
h. Gooniyandi (13 cases): absolutive, ergative, dative, locative, ablative 1, ablative 2,allative 1, allative 2, allative 3, allative 4, perlative, comitative, deprivative
i. Guugu Yimidhirr (11 cases): absolutive, ergative, dative, purposive, causal,
instrumental, locative-allative, ablative, superjacent, adessive, abessive
j. Yidiny (69 cases): absolutive, ergative, instrumental (locative, allative), fear, dative,
causal (ablative)
As I have pointed out, there are numerous Finno-Ugric and Australian languages that have
many cases. In particular, in Finno-Ugric, there are 18 cases in Hungarian, and 15 cases in both
Finnish and Udmurt. In Australian, there are 13 cases in Gooniyandi, and 11 cases in Guugu
Yimidhirr. All Finno-Ugric languages are a nominative-accusative type. In contrast, the
majority of Australian languages are ergative-absolutive types, and the sample Australian
languages are all ergative-absolutive. Only Dyirbal has a nominative case as well, since
Dyirbal can change the grammatical relations of both nominative and ergative types.
I classify the observed cases of (4) into three kinds of functions: grammatical, locative, and
adverbial. I examined the descriptive grammars of the sample languages, and quoted the case
names as the grammar described. Therefore, the definitions of cases are different according to
their sample languages, and largely depend on the authors of the grammars. For example, there
are 18 cases in Hungarian according to Keresztess description (1995). However, following
other descriptions and definitions, Borin (1986) suggested that the number of cases in
Hungarian ranges from five to twenty-six by. Additionally, the definitions and the names of
cases are more or less dependent on the authors subjective judgments, making it difficult to
study case functions in terms of their linguistic typology.
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This study focuses on the adverbial functions, observing the adverbial cases and usages of
the sample languages. First, it adopts the semantic and functional descriptions of each language.
At the same time, I check the functional descriptions of cases and their examples in sentences.In this way, I gather the data of cases in (4), and I carefully create the adverbial case group of
the observed cases. Thus, focusing on adverbial functions, I again consider the adverbial
functions of cases, and define their conditions as shown below:
(5) Conditions of the adverbial cases:
a. cases functioning as adjunct (outside of grammatical relations)
b. cases whose main function does not indicate location nor spacec. cases whose main function is an adverbial meaning (state, manner, companion, etc.)
The condition in (5a) excludes the grammatical cases such as nominative, dative, and ergative,
which are involved in grammatical relations as arguments. The second condition (5b) can
exclude the locative cases such as allative and ablative. Finally, the third condition (5c) defines
the adverbial cases with adverbial functions. Following the conditions (5), the genitive case is
classified in the adverbial cases. Generally, genitive case describes the relations between the
possessor and possessed, and this function is not grammatical nor locative. Thus, this study
regards genitive case as the adverbial case, in spite of some exceptions. There is a genitive case
in Finnish, Mari, and Udmurt (see (4)) in Finno-Ugric, and the genitive case in Finnish is
identical with the accusative case (the genitive in Mari and Udmurt are not identical). In
Finnish, both have common functions, and the genitive can be included in the grammatical
cases. This study analyzes the overall cases in each language presented in (4), and summarizes
the adverbial cases (excluding the genitive case of Finnish), as shown below:
(6) Adverbial cases of sample languages:
a. Finnish (5 adverbial cases out of 15): essive, translative, instructive, abessive, comitative
b. Hungarian (6 adverbial cases out of 18 cases): terminative, essive-formal, instrumental,
translative, causal-final, associative
c. Eastern Khanty (4 adverbial cases out of 9 cases): translative, instructive-final,
comitative-instrumental, abessive
d. Mari (4 adverbial cases out of 11 cases): modal-comparative, comitative, caritive,
genitive
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e. Udmurt (5 adverbial cases out of 15 cases): caritive, adverbial, instrumental, terminative,
genitive
f. Mansi (2 adverbial cases out of 6 cases): instrumental, translativeg. Dyirbal (3 adverbial cases out of 9 cases): instrumental, simple genitive, general
genitive
h. Gooniyandi (2 adverbial cases out of 13 cases): comitative, deprivative
i. Guugu Yimidhirr (4 adverbial cases out of 11 cases): purposive, causal, instrumental,
abessive
j. Yidiny (36, or 69 adverbial cases out of cases): instrumental (locative, allative), fear,
causal (ablative)
Generally, there are many locative cases in both Finno-Ugric and Australian, and when I take
away the locative cases and the grammatical cases, the remaining adverbial cases are few.
However, every language has at least two adverbial cases, which means that when there are
case markings, at least two cases are adverbial.
3.1. Characteristics of Finno-Ugric adverbial cases
I give examples of the adverbial cases in each Finno-Ugric language, and then consider thespecific characteristics of Finno-Ugric. Morphologically, all Finno-Ugric languages construct
the noun-case in the inflectional form, but the distributions of the adverbial cases are
different among Finno-Ugric languages. For example, the genitive case is observed in Finnic
(Finnish, Mari, and Udmurt), but not in Ugric (Hungarian, Eastern Khanty, and Mansi)
languages.
(7) Finnish (Karlsson 1999:123, 125, 127128)
a. Essive
Heikki on Jms-ss lkri-n
Heikki is Jms-loc doctor-ess
Heikki is (working as) a doctor in Jms.
b. Translative
Tyttaikoo insinri-ksi.
girl intend-3sg engineer-tra
The girl intends to become an engineer.
c. Instructive (it is used with a few fixed plural expressions)
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om-i-n silm-i-n
own-pl-ins eye-pl-ins
with (ones) own eyesd. Abessive
Hn lhti ulkomai-lle raha-tta ja passi-tta.
he leave-3sg.past foreign country-pl-loc money-abe and passport-abe
He went abroad without money and without a passport.
e. Comitative
Lsn oli Viljo Kohonen vaimo-ine-en.
present was Viljo Kohonen wife-com-possPresent was Viljo Kohonen with his wife.
In Finnish, there is the essive case and the translative case in (7a, b). The essive case conveys
the temporal state, and translative case conveys the resulting state. In (7c), the instructive case
has limited usage, and it does not carry an instrumental function. Finnish lacks the instrumental
case, but there is an abessive case meaning without in (7d). In (7e), the comitative case is
also limited in its usage, and always followed by a possessive suffix. Its meaning is with,
accompanied by.
(8) Hungarian (Rounds 2001:114-118)
a. Terminative
El-ksr-t bennnket a sarok-ig.
Pre-accompany-3sg.past us-acc the corner-ter
He accompanied us to the corner.
b. Essive-formal
Egy v-ig tanr-knt dolgoz-ott.
one year-ter teacher-ess work-3sg.past
She worked as a teacher for a year.
c. Instrumental
Inkbb ceruz-val rok, mint tol-lal.
rather pencil-inst write-1sg than pen-inst
I prefer to write with a pencil, than a pen.
Mr rgta jr v-val.
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already long time go.3sg Eva-inst
Hes been going with va for a long time.
d. TranslativeHallgatag ember-r vl-t, miutn meg-hal-t a felesg-e.
quiet person-tra change-3sg.past after pre-die-3sg.past the wife-poss
He became a quiet man after his wife died.
e. Causal-final
Minden-t meg-tesz a csald-j-rt.
everything-acc pre-do the family-poss-cau
He does everything for his family.f. Associative (Sociative, with people or objects associated with each other)
Mindig csald-ostul utazik.
always family-ass travel-3sg
He always travels with his family.
In Hungarian, there is the terminative case, meaning till, to in (8a). The terminative case is
related to locatives in that it can carry the destination of location. In (8b), the essive case
basically expresses a temporal state, and it has a figurative meaning as well. In (8c), the
instrumental case carries both instrumental and comitative meanings. In (8d), there is the
translative case in Hungarian as well as in Finnish. The causal-final case basically carries cause,
reason, and purpose in (8e). Moreover, the causal-final case is used for marking a price, 100
forint-rt (100 forint). In (8f), the associative case means with people or objects closely
associated with each other.
(9) Eastern Khanty (Csepregi 1998:2021)
a. Translative
t
as a house
b. Instructive-final
wntat
(to feed) with fish food
tat
for a house
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c. Comitative-instrumental
tnat
with a housed. Abessive
t
without a house
Khanty has two major dialects, the eastern and the northern dialects. The numbers of cases
are different in each. This study focuses only on the eastern dialect, which has four adverbial
cases: the translative, the instructive-final, the comitative-instrumental, and the abessive.
(10) Mari (Kangasmaa-Minn 1998:227, 237)1
a. Modal-comparative
mar-la ojla
speaks Mari (toward)
totar=la solk
tatar scarf adjectival meaning
b. Comitative
kum ig-ge
with three cubs
c. Caritive
jol-de
without legs
d. Genitive (indicating only animate owner)
kuga-n dr
the Tsars daughter
Mari has 11 cases, and many cases are classified in locative cases. Kangasmaa-Minn (1998)
calls four cases as marginal cases, which are adverbial cases: modal-comparative, comitative,
caritive, and genitive. Functionally, the function without of the caritive case is identical with
that of the abessive case.
(11) Udmurt (Winkler 2001:21, 24, 2728)
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a. Caritive
so mum-tek bub-tek bud-i-z.
he/she mother-caritive father-caritive grow up-past-3sgHe/she grew up without mother and father.
b. Adverbial
bgat-em-e-ja
be able-particple-1sg-adverbial
according to my ability
c. Instrumental
tir-en/Pedor-en uani (to work with the axe/with Fedor)including comitative meaning
d. Terminative -o
mi ur-o b-i-m
we river-ter run-past-1pl
We ran to the river (locative meaning)
temporal meaning: ukna-o until the morning
e. Genitiveta so-len pi-jez.
this he/she-gen son-3sg
This is his/her son.
Mari has 15 cases and the observed cases are mainly locative cases. Six cases are classified
as adverbial cases: the caritive, the adverbial, the instrumental, the terminative, and the genitive,
as in (11). The instrumental case carries comitative meaning as well, and the terminative case
is basically regarded as locative indicating the destination, but at the same time, it carries the
temporal meaning until. This study considers that the terminative case in Udmurt (also
terminative in Hungarian) as a kind of adverbial case, since the main function of the
terminative is considered to be limiting the point of things.
(12) Mansi (Riese 2001:26)
a. Instrumental
wram ka-l joni
child-nom doll-inst play-3sg
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The child plays with the doll.
b. Translative
jk wit-i jmtiice-nom water-tra become-3sg
The ice turns into water.
Translative carrying essive meaning
taw l kkar-i rpiti
he/she doctor-tra work-3sg
He/she works as a doctor.
Finally, Mansi has six cases, two of which carry adverbial meanings. The two cases are the
instrumental and translative case, as in (12). The instrumental case does not have a comitative
meaning although other Ugric languages (Hungarian and Eastern Khanty) subsume the
instrumental and comitative cases. The comitative function is realized in the postposition jot
(with). In contrast, the translative case can imply essive meaning, as in (12b).
Table 2 summarizes the Finno-Ugric adverbial cases, as follows:
Table 2: Distributions of the Finno-Ugric adverbial casesEssi
veTranslati
veInstrument
alComitati
veAbessi
veGeniti
veOthers
Finnish NA KSI INE TTA N(acc)
Instructive
Hungarian
KENT
V VAL Terminative,Causal-final,Associative
EasternKhanty
AE NAT SAE Instructive-final
Mari GE DE N Modal-comparative,Udmurt EN TEK LEN Adverbial,
TerminativeMansi I AEL
First, the essive case and the translative case are observed in Finnish and Hungarian moreover,
Eastern Khanty and Mansi have only the translative case subsuming both functions. Second,
the instrumental and comitative cases are realized in one form, like -val/-vel in Hungarian. In
addition to Hungarian, Eastern Khanty and Udmurt use the identical form for both functions. In
contrast, Finnish, Mari, and Mansi use discrete forms for each function. Third, the abessive
case is observed in Finnish, Eastern Khanty, Mari, and Udmurt, and the abessive case is
sometimes called the caritive. Finally, there are other minor cases, and in particular,
terminative and causal (causal-final case in Hungarian and instructive-final in Eastern Khanty)
functions are also characteristics of Finno-Ugric.
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3.2. Characteristics of Australian adverbial casesNext, I give examples of adverbial cases in each Australian language, and then consider the
specific characteristics of Australian. Morphologically, Australian languages construct the
noun-case form as they do in Finno-Ugric, but the distributions of the Australian adverbial
cases are different from Finno-Ugric. For example, two genitive cases are observed only in
Dyirbal. The instrumental case is generally considered to be related to the comitative, but the
form of the instrumental case is identical with ergative case.
(13) Dyirbal (Dixon 1972:93, 107, 109)
a. Instrumental (identical with ergative)
balam ugu bagugara-gu ba-gu gaind-u bagan
there-nom yam-nom two people-erg three-inst yamstick-inst dig-present
the two (women) are digging yams with yamstick.
b. Simple genitive
bayi waal baul yaau
there-nom boomerang-nom there-gen man-gen
bulganu bagun ugumbiu buan
big-gen there-erg woman-erg see-present/past
Woman saw big mans boomerang.
c. General genitive
ayguna yaagu minban
I man-erg shoot-present/past
margindu waybalamigu
gun-inst white man-general gen-inst
man shot me with the gun from the white man (i.e., that the white man gave or soldhim).
In Dyirbal, the adverbial cases are instrumental and simple/general genitive cases. The
instrumental case does not include a comitative function, and the instrumental case form
-gu is identical with the ergative. The simple and general genitive cases differ in that the
simple genitive carries present ownership, and the general genitive carries past ownership.
(14) Gooniyandi (McGregor 1990:343, 347, 350)
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a. Comitative
rope-ngaddi thoodgani
rope-com he:descendedHe climbed down with a rope.
joogoo-ngaddi wardjiddi
child-com we:went
We went with the children.
b. Deprivative
gamba-winiyja riminyloondi
water-deprivative I:got:thirstyI got thirsty for lack of water.
Gooniyandi has two ablatives and four allatives. Therefore, there are only two adverbial
cases: the comitative and deprivative in (14a-b). The case name of (14a) -ngaddi is
comitative, but it carries instrumental function as well. In (14b), the deprivative case indicates
for lack of, and this case can be considered functionally identical with the abessive case.
(15) Guugu Yimidhirr (Haviland 1979:53-54, 108109, 112)
a. Purposive
mayi-ingu
food-purp
for food
Wal-aa dyaarba-angu dyinda-ya
rise-imperative snake-purp bit-caution
Watch out for that snake! It might bite!
b. Causal
Nyulu milbiir biniirr-nganh balga-y.
3sg.nom wommera ironbark-cau make-past
He made the wommera from ironbark (wood).
c. Instrumental (it is identical with ergative)
Nyulu bidha-al gudaa wagi naaybu-unh.
3sg.nom child-erg dog-abs cut-past knife-inst
The child cut the dog with a knife.
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d. Abessive
Yarraman ngayu biida-aga man-ni
horse-abs 1sg.nom father-abe take-pastI got the horse from (my) father.
In Guugu Yimidhirr, there are four adverbial cases: the purposive, the causal, the
instrumental, and the abessive cases. In (15a) and (15b), there is a distinction between the
purposive and causal. The causal case is related to the ablative, and it indicates cause, and
the source of something given or transferred, or the material from which something is made.
As shown in Dyirbal, the instrumental case in Guugu Yimidhirr is identical with the ergative,and it excludes the comitative function (comitative is realized with the derivational suffix).
Finally, the abessive case is used to mean a person in or into whose presence an action takes
place, or moves, or to whom speech is directed. Thus, the abessive case in Guugu Yimidhirr is
different from the abessive because of the meaning without, although the case name is
abessive.
(16) Yidiny (Dixon 1977:262, 300)
a. Instrumental, identical with locative, allative (not having comitative meaning)
aa wugul uu: ugi:l buna:
I-object marker nape-abs that-erg stick-inst hit-past
That [person] hit me in the back of the neck with a stick.
b. Causal, identical with ablative
mugun yina:ri wawal gala-m
wound-abs this sort-abs see-present spear-causal
These sort of wounds can be seen [on a certain man] caused by spears.
c. Fear, something to be avoided
aa munubuun ina: / bama-yida.
child-abs inside-still sit-past person-fear
The child still sat inside [the hut] for fear of [being seen by] the people.
In Yidiny, several case forms are identical, and the number of cases ranges from six to nine
according to the definition. The instrumental case is identical with the locative and the allative,
and the causal case is identical with the ablative. Among the cases in Yidiny, the instrumental,
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causal, and fear are classified in the adverbial cases. The instrumental case does not include the
comitative or the ergative. It is remarkable that there is a fear case, meaning for fear of.
Table 3 summarizes the Australian adverbial cases. The functions of the cases in Table 3 aredifferent from those in Table 2.
Table 3: Distributions of the Australian adverbial casesInstrumental Comitative Causal-purpose Abessive Genitive Others
Dyirbal NGU U/MI two genitivesGooniyandi NGADDI WINYJA comitative-instrumentalGuugu
YimidhirrUNH (Ergative) INGU/NGANH AGA Purposive carries fear
functionYidiny :L
(Locative,allative)
M (Ablative) Fear
First, the instrumental case is observed in all four languages. The instrumental case is mainly
related to the ergative case but not completely. In contrast, the comitative case lacks in the
three languages, the comitative function is realized with the derivational suffix, except in
Gooniyandi. Second, the causal or purposive case is observed in Guugu Yimidhirr and Yidiny,
as there is a causal-final case holding cause and purpose functions in Hungarian. Third, the
abessive case is observed in Gooniyandi and Guugu Yimidhirr. But the abessive in Guugu
Yimidhirr does not mean without, for lack of, but away from. Although the case name is
abessive, the observed functions are different. Finally, there are two genitives in Dyirbal, butthere is no genitive case in the other three languages. It is remarkable that Yidiny has fear case
and this function for fear of is also realized in Guugu Yimidhirr by using the purposive case.
4. Discussion
In this section, I discuss the relationships between adverbial case functions and other
cases/forms by contrasting the adverbial cases of Finno-Ugric and those of Australian.
To start with, I discuss four kinds of adverbial functions: the instrumental, the essive, thefear, and the genitive. As I already pointed out, the instrumental function accompanies the
comitative function in Finno-Ugric and Guugu Yimidhirr in these languages, the instrumental
and the comitative functions are realized in one case form (the case name instrumental is
basically used for integrating both functions). In contrast, the instrumental in Australian
languages (except in Yidiny) is identical with the ergative case form. This means that the
instrumental and ergative functions are related to each other, and this polysemy is observed in
other languages in the world. Then, the essive case is observed in Finnish, Hungarian, andMansi (the translative case carries the essive function), but there is no essive case in Australian
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languages. The essive and translative cases are considered to be peculiar functions observed in
Finno-Ugric, but out of the other Australian languages, we can find the essive case in
Nunggubuyu, and the translative case in Ungarinjin. Thus, the essive and translative arefrequently observed in Finno-Ugric, but it is probable that these cases can be found in other
languages that have a rich case system as well. Last, the fear case is observed in Yidiny, and
moreover, the purposive case in Guugu Yimidhirr carries the fear function as well (see the
example (17)). Moreover, there is a fear case in other Australian languages (for example,
Pitjantjatjara), which is peculiar to this area. There is no fear case in Finno-Ugric, and
alternately the locative case (-tl/-tl: ablative) is used for the fear function, in Hungarian.
(17) Guugu Yimidhirr (Haviland 1979:116)
Gamba-gamba nhayun yinil dyaarba-angu
old woman-abs that-abs afraid snake-purp
The old lady is afraid of snakes.
(18) Hungarian
fl az ember-tl.
he afraid the person-loc
He is afraid of the person.
Second, I discuss the possibilities and limits of the adverbial cases in Finno-Ugric and
Australian. Since there are blanks in Table 2 and Table 3, case markings cannot always cover
all probable adverbial functions. For example, Tok Pisin (an English-based creole spoken in
Papua New Guinea) does not have any case form, but has a multifunctional preposition,
long, which carries many kinds of grammatical, locative, and adverbial meanings
accompanying nouns. Thus, we can assume that there are possibilities of forms of modifying
nouns and their grammatical relations. They are carried by changing word orders, verbal
agreements, cases, prepositions, postpositions, and so on. In particular, even if the sample
languages have many case forms and adverbial cases, there are still missing functions. We
examine which forms are used for some blank functions in Tables 2 and 3. The results are
shown in (19)(22). In (19), there is no instrumental case in Finnish, and the instrumental
function is substituted by the adessive -lla, one of the locative cases. Hungarian lacks the
abessive case, and this function is substituted for the postposition nlkl, as in (20).
Moreover, the abessive function in Dyirbal is not realized in case form, but in the suffix -
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agay, as in (21). There is instrumental case in Yidiny, but it excludes the comitative
function. Instead, the comitative affix -di ~ -yi is used in (22).
(19) Instrumental function in Finnish (Karlsson 1999:116): adessive case
Syn keittoa lusika-lla.
eat-1sg soup-part spoon-loc
I eat soup with a spoon.
(20) Abessive function in Hungarian (Rounds 2001:): postposition
egy kvt krem, cukor nlkl.
one coffee-acc ask-1sg sugar postpPlease a cup of coffee, without sugar
(21) Abessive function in Dyirbal (Dixon 1972:223): suffix of abessive
bayi yaa yugu-agay bani u
there-nom man-nom stick-suffix coming
man without a stick in coming
(22) Comitative function in Yidiny (Dixon 1977:139): comitative affix
uu aa gada biba:y bu anuyi
that child-abs come paper-com-abs woman-gen-com-abs
That child is coming with the womans paper (letter).
To summarize, when the sample languages lack possible cases for the adverbial functions,
the substituting forms are usually the following three morphological options: locative cases,
postpositions, or suffixes. Other forms such as prepositions, prefixes, or grammatical cases are
not probable since the sample languages (both Finno-Ugric and Australian) are dependent on
morphological cases, and these types of languages prefer postpositions and suffixes. Finally,
we can conclude that the distributions and characteristics of the adverbial cases of Finno-Ugric
and Australian can be explained in terms of the following two points: The first is the
geographical tendency of each area, and the second is the typologically probable form/function
combinations.
5. Conclusion
This study concludes that the functions of the adverbial cases partly show geographical
tendencies (e.g., the essive and translative case in Finno-Ugric, and the fear case in Australian),
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but for the most part, there are universally the same kinds of functions (e.g., the instrumental,
the abessive, and the causal) in Finno-Ugric and Australian. Moreover, the adverbial cases are
still related to other grammatical and locative cases, and the case selections/omissions of theadverbial functions are dependent on each language.
This study claims that the characteristics of the adverbial cases are different between
Finno-Ugric and Australian regardless of partly selectional similarity. In particular, there are
two functional characteristics in the two sample languages: The first characteristic is that the
specific case functions are different even if the case names are identical. The instrumental in
Finno-Ugric usually accompanies the comitative function, and the instrumental in Australian is
identical with the ergative. The second characteristic is that when the languages do not have anequivalent case for certain adverbial functions, both Finno-Ugric and Australian have
morphologically alternative means: locative cases, suffixes, or postpositions.
Notes*Abbreviations: abe: abessive case abs: absolutive case ass: associative case acc: accusativecase cau: causal(-final) case com: comitative case erg: ergative case ess: essive case gengenitive case ins: instructive case inst: instrumental case loc: locative case nom: nominative
part: partitive case past: past tense poss: possessive affix postp: postposition pre: preverbalelement purp: purposive case ter: terminative tra: translative case sg: singular pl: plural 1, 2,
3: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person respectively.
1 This study adopts the data described by Kangasmaa-Minn (1998), but I also checked thedescriptions of Alhoniemi (1985).
R e f e r e n c e s
Abondolo, Daniel (ed.). 1998. The Uralic languages. London/New York: Routledge.Alhoniemi, Alho. 1985. Marin kielioppi. Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilanen Seura.Blake, Barry. 1994. Case. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Borin, Lars. 1986. Is Hungarian a case language? Fenno-Ugrica Suecana (Journal of
Finno-Ugric Research in Sweden) 8: 133.Csepregi, Mrta. 1998. Szurguti Osztjk Chrestomathia. Szeged: JATE Finnugor Tanszk.Dixon, Robert.M.W. 1972. The Dyibal Language of North Queensland. Cambridge: CUP.Dixon, Robert.M.W. 1977. A Grammar of Yidiny. Cambridge: CUP.Haspelmath Martin. 2009. Terminology of case. In: Malchukov & Spencer (eds.).: 505517.Haspelmath Martin, Matthew S. Dryer, David Gil, and Bernard Comrie (eds.). 2005. The World
Atlas of Language Structures (WALS). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Haviland, John B. 1979. Guugu Yimidhirr sketch grammar. In: R. M. W. Dixon and B.
Blake(eds.). Handbook of Australian Languages Vol I.: 26180.Iggesen, Oliver A. 2005. Number of cases. In: Haspelmath et al. (eds.): feature 49 in WALS:
202205.Kangasmaa-Minn, Eeva. 1998. Mari, In: Abondolo(ed.): 219248.Karlsson, Fred. 1999. Finnish: An essential grammar. London: Routledge.
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Keresztes, Lszl. 1995. A practical Hungarian grammar. Debrecen: Debreceni NyriEgyetem.
Malchukov, Andrej & Andrew Spencer(eds.). 2009. The Oxford Handbook of Case. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.McGregor. 1990. A functional grammar of Gooniyandi. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: JohnBenjamins.
Moravcsik, Edith A. 2009. The distribution of case. In: Malchukov & Spencer (eds.).: 231245.Nikolaeva, Irina. 1999. Ostyak. Mnchen: Lincom Europa.Riese, Timothy. 2001. Vogul. Mnchen: Lincom Europa.Rounds, Carol. 2001. Hungarian: an essential grammar. London/ New York: Routledge.Winkler, Eberhard 2001. Udmurt. Mnchen: Lincom Europa.
Abstract
This study examines case forms and functions in the Finno-Ugric and Australianaboriginal languages, particularly focusing on adverbial functions like theinstrumental, comitative, essive cases, and so on. It is well known that there are richcase systems in both the Finno-Ugric and Australian languages. For example,whereas Finnish has 15 cases and Hungarian has 18, Dyirbal has nine cases, andGuugu Yimidhirr has 12. This study chooses 10 sample languages from bothlanguage groups, examining the similarities and differences of their adverbialfunctions. Finally, it claims that there are common and unique characteristics of theadverbial cases in the Finno-Ugric and Australian languages, which can be explained
by the universal characteristics of the adverbial cases and geographical tendency.Moreover, it finds that there are other substituting forms (locative cases, suffixes,
and postpositions).
Keywords: adverbial cases, case functions, typology, Finno-Ugric, Australian
Masahiko NoseReitaku University, [email protected]