Nominal categegories
3.3 Gender–number mismatches and exceptions
3.4.1 Functions of grammatical cases
3.4.1.1 Absolutive
The absolutive case is zero-marked and not indicated in the glosses. It occurs in the following contexts:
1. on the sole argument of intransitive (36) and extended intransitive verbs (§19.1.2,
§19.1.4):
(36) di-la 1sg-gen
nuˁq-be arm-pl
ʡaˁbħ-ib
get.tired.pfv-pret ca<d>i cop<npl>
‘My arms got tired.’
2. on the patient or theme argument of transitive and ditransitive (extended transi-tive) verbs, (§19.1.5), (§19.1.6):
(37) du-l 1sg-erg
ka-d-iqː-an=da
down-npl-carry.ipfv-ptcp=1 qix-be nut-pl
‘I will bring nuts.’
3. on the stimulus argument of affective verbs (§19.1.8):
(38) itːa-j
those.obl-dat ʡuˁrus Russian
ʁaj language
d-alχ-ul
npl-know.ipfv-icvb akːʷ-i=q’al
cop.neg-hab.pst=mod
‘They did not know the Russian language.’
4. on the agent in the antipassive construction (§19.2.1):
‘I (masc.) eat fish.’
5. on subject-like arguments and nominal predicates in copula clauses (§22.2):
(40) χalq’
people
kːuš-le=de hungry-advz=pst
‘The people were hungry.’
(41) het
6. on expressions of temporal duration (i.e. for a certain period):
(42) d-alt-u
npl-let.ipfv-prs.3ʁajal twentybari
day
‘(They) leave (them) for 20 days.’
(43) ʡaˁbal
‘I stayed there for three years.’
7. in vocative function:
(44) ce
‘What do you say, mother?’
3.4.1.2 Ergative
The ergative suffix is-li(allomorphs-ni,-riafternandrrespectively, and-l, which can only be added to vowels). The ergative occurs in the following contexts:
1. on the agent of transitive and ditransitive predicates, including inanimate agents:
(45) žaq’-ne
‘We did not eat boars, right?’
(46) hin-ni
‘The water turns this around.’
2. on expressions of reason/cause (though the dative is more common in this
‘Many people died of hunger.’
3. on instruments (though the comitative is more frequent in this function, see
§3.4.2.1): In sentences such as (48) with two ergatives it is only marginally possible to put the two ergative items directly next to each other, presumably because this leads to processing difficulties. To overcome this problem the second ergative is either placed in some other position, or is replaced with the comitative:
(48) du-l
4. in the construction with the verb ‘fill’ (49a), (49b):
(49) a. il-i-la
‘His yard was filled with chickens, geese, and turkeys.’
b. b-ic’-ib
‘And (they) also filled the hut with rye.’
5. on the patient in the antipassive construction (39);
6. when expressing the profession (50):
(50) il
‘He was a/the veterinarian.’
3.4.1.3 Genitive
The genitive suffix is-la(allomorphs-na,-raafternandr, and allomorph-llawith many nouns and pronouns marked for plural, and in some other contexts). It is used in the following contexts:
1. with various types of relations, e.g. on noun modifiers denoting possession (36), (51), (52), material (53), ingredients (54), units of measurement (55), properties (56).
Sanzhi does not distinguish between alienable and inalienable possessors. Some more information on constructions expressing possession can be found in §30.4.
The position of genitives at the level of the phrase is analyzed in §21.1.3.
(51) nišːa-la
‘in our village of Sanzhi’ (lit. ‘in our village of the Sanzhi people’) (52) hel=ʁuna
‘ We need such a man, one with huge strength.’
(53) arc-la
‘We make chudu (trad. food) from all various herbs, we make it from dock.’
(55) xujal
‘five-liter canister of wine’
(56) guž-la strength-gen
admi person
‘strong person’ (E)
2. on the arguments of most postpositions (§8):
(57) qal-la house-gen
sala in.front
‘in front of the house’
(58) qːarqːa-la stone-gen
hila-b behind-n
‘behind the stone’
3. in partitive constructions (grammatically, they represent a genitive phrase with an omitted head noun):
(59) hin-na water-gen
b-erčː-a!
n-drink.pfv-imp
‘Drink (some) water!’ (E)
4. in the constructions of thefill-type (for which normally the ergative is used, see examples (49a) and (49b)); the genitive is also possible in (60). In this example, the genitive can be replaced by the ergative without any change in meaning. As in the partitive construction, the genitive noun in (60) is actually part of a genitive phrase of which the head noun has not been expressed, but could be added at any time (e.g.kːuruškːa‘cup, mug’). In contexts in which no such head noun could be inserted, the genitive is ungrammatical and the ergative must be used instead. This applies to (49a), (49b), which would not be admissible with a genitive.
(60) b-ic’-ib-le,
n-fill.pfv-pret-cvb hin-na water-gen
b-erčː-ib
n-drink.pfv-pret ca-b cop-n
‘Having filled (the glass) with water (he) drank it.’
5. in the gen + ‘make’ construction, there are a number of lexicalized phrases that consist of a noun in the genitive used together with the verbb-arq’- (pfv) ‘do, make’ (depending on the meaning there are also some other verbs allowed). This noun can usually not be described as serving any specific syntactic function in the clause, but instead forms a kind of compound together with the verb. The argument that is syntactically the direct object and controls the gender agreement on the verb functions as patient or it takes over the role of the affected participant similar to a beneficiary (or maleficiary).4More examples of such compound verbs are given in §12.2.2.
(61) qalla + b-arq’-ij‘marry off’;qalla + ka-b-at-ij‘marry off’ (house.gen + down-hpl-let.pfv-inf)
a. ca one
qal-la house-gen
r-arq’-ib f-do.pfv-pret
cin-na refl.sg-gen
rursːi girl
‘(She) already married off one daughter.’
4In the constructions in (61a), (61b), (62) and (63) the direct object (e.g.rursːi) can perhaps be interpreted as the possessum and the genitive noun (qal-la) as possessor such that we would deal with a genitive phrase.
The phrase would, however, have the reverse case distribution of normal genitive phrases. The possessor is normally a human referent and the possessum can be inanimate, but in the four examples it is the other way around. Furthermore, in genitive phrases possessor and possessed usually occur next to each other in the order genitive + noun, which is also not the case in these examples, but occasionally other orders are possible (121) (§21.1.2). In sum, an analysis in which the direct objects and the nouns in the genitive syntactically form genitive phrases needs to be rejected.
b. di-la
‘I married off my two sons.’ (E) (62) χːaˁbla + b-arq’-ij‘bury’
di-la
‘(I) buried my sister.’
(63) qaˁbla + b-arq’-ij‘behead’;qaˁbla + b-aˁq-ij‘behead’ (neck.gen +‘hit, strike, wound’)
‘Because of this you (masc.) will be beheaded!’
6. with the use of genitive pronouns in emphatic reflexive constructions (§29.1.2):
(64) ala 2sg.gen
r-uˁq’-aˁn!
f-go-imp
‘(You) yourself (fem.) go away!’ (E) 3.4.1.4 Dative
The dative suffix is-j. The dative occurs in the following contexts:
1. experiencer with affective predicates (65–67) (§19.1.3, §19.1.8) (65) ce
‘What need is there, he says, for you to bring the boy here and there.’
(66) dam
‘I am angry.’ (lit. ‘anger directs to me’) (E) (67) χatːaj
‘Grandfather, are you cold?’
2. goal-like functions such as addressees (68) (for this role, the in-lative is more com-mon, see §3.4.2.4), recipients (§19.1.6), beneficiaries/maleficiaries (69), and goals of extended intransitive verbs with experiential semantics (70–72) or occasionally spatial goals (73) and other types of goal-like constructions (74):
(68) dam
‘(I) will make a big wedding for my daughter.’
(70) gu-lik’-an
‘listening carefully to the sounds of the frogs’
(71) Murad-li-j
‘Murad feels very sorry for Madina.’ (E) (72) na
‘Now the boy believed it (= the mouse) and ran away.’
(73) žergʷ-ne
‘The wasps flew after the boy and the puppy’
(74) iž=ra
‘This one also (= the person on a picture) is similar to a woman.’
3. expression of cause (75), (76), e.g. in the adverbhel-i-j(dem-obl-dat) ‘therefore’:
(75) hel
‘Because of the benevolence of Kak Hussein that (man) also remained (alive).’
(76) točno
‘This is exactly his deed, he says, this happened because of him, because of his mistake.’
4. temporal duration (‘for’/‘in’) and points of time:
(77) palata-li-j
‘(The price) for a ward is 2000 (rubles) per day.’
(78) har
‘Every year he (usually) bought two hats.’
(79) du-l
‘I will do the homework in one hour.’ (E) (80) ixtːu-b
‘That person needs to be there in the morning at 8 o’clock.’
5. prices:
‘(He) sold the donkey for three rubles.’
6. spatial functions (in elicitation, but not common in natural texts):
(82) čaˁkʷa
‘The bird sat down on the tree.’