Nominal categegories
3.3 Gender–number mismatches and exceptions
3.4.2 Functions of semantic cases
Apart from the comitative all semantic cases have a basic spatial meaning. Table 3.3 provides the core spatial cases. As in most other Caucasian languages the spatial cases are formally and functionally rather transparent and organized along two dimensions:
location and direction (movement). There are six suffixes that express different ways of locating an item with respect to a reference point:
• loc-series -le/ja: in, on a reference point (§3.4.2.2)
• ad-series -šːu: at, by, close to a (mostly) animate reference point (§3.4.2.3)
• in-series -cːe: in, on, at a reference point (§3.4.2.4)
• sub-series -gu: under a reference point (§3.4.2.5)
• ante-series -sa: in front of a reference point (§3.4.2.6)
• post-series -hara: behind a reference point (§3.4.2.7)
There is a semantic distinction between animate reference points (normally used to-gether with the ad-series) and inanimate reference points (usually marked with the loc-series). Furthermore, not all conceivable spatial constellations are covered by the location suffixes. For instance, meanings such as ‘near’ and ‘above’ can only expressed by means of postpositions (Chapter 8).
Furthermore, there is a three-way distinction in terms of direction (movement):
• lative (zero marked): direction to a goal
• essive (marked by means of the gender/number agreement suffixes): stative loca-tion at a reference point
• ablative (-ror -rka): movement away from a reference point or movement through or along a reference point
The direction markers can be directly suffixed to spatial postpositions/adverbs and some other nominals that have inherent locational meaning (e.g. place names). With all other items, direction markers only occur in combination with the location markers. In addition to the core spatial cases given in Table 3.3 there is one minor spatial case whose use is somewhat restricted, the directional-gm-a(§3.4.2.8).
The lative is formally unmarked and expresses direction and movement to a refer-ence point. The essive is formally marked through gender agreement suffixes that agree with the item whose location is expressed. This is normally the absolutive argument, i.e. agreement of the essive adjunct confirms to the general rules of gender agreement.
The absolutive argument does not need to be overtly expressed in order to control the agreement, but can be left implicit (83).
(83) qili home
sa-∅-jʁ-ib=qːella
hither-m-come.pfv-pret=when
xːunul-la woman-gen
bek’-le-w head-loc-m
či-w on-m w-alkː-un-ne
m-importune-pret-cvbk-erg-ul=de
down-sit.ipfv-icvb=pst
‘(After drinking alcohol the husband,) when he came come, he pestered his wife.’
(lit. ‘sat on the wife’s head’)
However, as example (84) shows, it is also possible for other prominent arguments to control gender agreement on an essive adjunct. In this example, it is the implicit agent, the first person pronoun in the ergative case referring to the masculine speaker that controls agreement on the noun in the in-essive (see §20.2.4 for more details).
(84) hež this
sawχuz-li-cːe-w sovkhoz-obl-in-m
aʁʷ-c’al four-ten
dus year
ʡaˁči work
b-arq’-ib=da n-do.pfv-pret=1
‘In the sovkhoz I (masc.) worked for 40 years.’
The ablative has two meanings, ‘from’ and ‘through’/‘along’. It is most frequently ex-pressed by the suffix -r, but -rkais also possible with apparently no difference in meaning.
The latter suffix is morphologically complex consisting of -rand -kaand less frequently used than simply -r. Diachronically, -kamight go back to an elevation markerka‘down’
(and thus be related to the elevation preverbka- ‘down’, see §11.6.2).5
The spatial cases are functionally and partially also formally close to spatial adverbs (§7.1.2) and postpositions (§8.1) and can be used alone or together with them. Further-more, there are semantic and formal resemblances with spatial preverbs (§11.6). Spatial cases are also used for non-spatial purposes, e.g. as part of valency frames, in certain constructions such as comparison or to express non-canonical agent constructions. In the following, spatial and non-spatial functions will be described in more detail. Microto-ponyms, some other place names (§10) and spatial adverbs (§7.1) diverge from ordinary common nouns when inflected for spatial cases. In a nutshell, they have an inherent locational meaning and are only inflected for direction (lative, essive, and ablative).
3.4.2.1 Comitative
The suffix of the comitative is -cːella. Diachronically it is probably complex consisting of the in-lative -cːeand the genitive -(l)la. It is used with nominals having animate refer-ents in the comitative function (85) as well as with inanimate nouns in the instrumental function (86), (87) and to express manner (88) or experiencers (89) as well as in other contexts roughly corresponding to the use of Englishwith(90).
(85) xural
by.footd-ax-ul
1/2.pl-go.ipfv-icvbhej-ka=či-d-a
this-down=on-1/2.pl-dirdi-la 1sg-gen juldašː-a-cːella…
friend-obl.pl-comit
‘We (were) going by foot there with my friends…’
(86) paˁq strike
ik’-ul
say.ipfv.m-icvb
q’isːa-l-cːella crock-obl-comit
‘striking with the crock’
5Tanti Dargwa, a relatively closely related variety, has four orientation markers, among them -ka, that are only suffixed to nominals inflected for the lative or the ablative. (see Sumbatova & Lander 2014: 69–70 and Forker 2019a).
(87) saˁ-q’-aˁn
‘when he came here with sorrows ...’
(89) nu,
‘as if it happened to you’
(90) ħaˁšukː-a-d
‘Inside the pot there are 2, 3, 4 things like this with holes on the lower side.’
3.4.2.2 loc-lative -le/-ja/-a, loc-essive -le-b/-ja-b/-a-band loc-ablative -le-r/-ja-r/-a-r
The loc-series is together with the in-series (§3.4.2.4) by far the most frequently used series among the spatial cases. It can be broadly described as a general location marker that expresses the most common location of a figure with respect to the ground. Both its formal make-up and its functions are rather complex and deserve a future study. In this section, I can only provide a sketch of its formation and its meaning. Formally, the loc-series is very heterogeneous (in contrast to all other spatial case suffixes). It is either expressed by dedicated suffixes-aand-jaor by a change of the final voweli > e. The vowel change almost exclusively affects nouns that take-lias their ergative suffix and oblique stem marker, and thus we get-li >-le. However, not all nouns that have the ergative/oblique suffix-liundergo the vowel change, but some of those nouns take a suffix as loc-series marker. The occurrences of the allomorphs (suffixes or vowel change) can only partially be predicted. I will first give the usage constraints for each marker, describe its functions by means of examples and in the end compare it to similar markers from other Dargwa varieties. In addition to the relatively regular ways of forming the loc-series by means of the just listed allomorphs, there is a special class of nouns that has inherent locational meaning and can be said to semantically express the loc-series as well although synchronically no case suffix can be identified. This class consists of native place names (mostly names of villages and microtoponyms, Chapter 10).
The default way of forming the loc-series for nouns in the singular is the vowel change of the ergative/oblique suffix -li > -le. The combinations *-li-le (-obl-loc) or*-l-le(with a deletion of the vowel of the ergative/oblique suffix) are un-grammatical. The suffix-leis used after consonants and vowels. There is one noun,neqːi
‘cave’, which hasneqːeas the loc-lative (in addition to the regular formneqːi-le), i.e. we have again the vowel changei > e.
The suffix -jais only used after the vowelsa,iandu. It occurs with most nouns in the plural, personal and demonstrative pronouns, plural reflexive pronouns as well as with very few other nouns in the singular, e.g.qu-ja(field-loc),aba-ja(mother-loc).
The suffix-ais used with a number of nouns of which at least some make use of-lias ergative/oblique suffix. Examples of such nouns areħaˁšak‘pot’ (90) (comitative ħaˁšak-li-cːella),mistːik’ ‘mosque’,qːatːa‘canyon’,musːa ‘place’,daˁrqʷ ‘barn, cattle-shed’,šːi
‘village’. With a few of these nouns the suffix is simply added to the noun, e.g. mistːik’-a ‘to the mosque’ andħaˁšuk-a‘into the pot’. With those nouns that have stem-final a, the locative case differs from the base stem in the pitch accent that switches to the final vowel, e.g.musːá‘place/to the place’ (92).6 Thus, we can assume thata + a > aː
> á. The noun ‘village’ has the special locative form šːa‘(in)to the village’. This form is not the oblique stem because it does not serve as the base form for the formation of other cases. Furthermore, the more common way of saying ‘in the village’ is to use the in-essive (51). The suffix-ais also attested for some plural nouns that make use of -neas the plural suffix, e.g.mus-n-a(place-pl-obl.loc) ‘to the places’,kis-n-a-b (pocket-pl-obl.loc-n) ‘in the pockets’,buruš-n-a-r(mattress-pl-obl.loc-f) ‘on the mattresses’.
These examples can perhaps be analyzed as undergoing a vowel changee > a for the formation of the loc-series.
The meaning of the loc-series is rather broad. It has a basic general spatial and di-rectional meaning indicating movement to a goal, static location at a reference point and movement away from a reference point. Usually the location is the most typical lo-cation. The reference points can be places (92), place names, villages, cities, buildings, institutions (91), body parts, vehicles and other means of transport, containers (94), and so on. The loc-series translates into English as ‘to, in, on’. Its meaning includes vertical location, e.g. on a wall (93), and also location inside a reference point (94), (95). Note that instead of the loc-series it is possible to use the in-series in examples (93–95) with no difference in meaning (§3.4.2.4). However, it seems that with certain locations there are conventionalized uses of the one or the other suffix. For instance, with names of set-tlements the loc-series occurs (96), whereas with the nounšahar ‘town’ the in-series formšahar-ri-cːeis used. Withħaˁšak‘pot’ the loc-series is clearly preferred (95), but the loc-series formħaˁšak-li-cːeis also attested (116). Further research is needed in order to arrive at a more detailed picture about the semantic similarities and differences between these two spatial case series.
(91) tusnaq-le-w=uw prison-loc-m=q
iž this
ʡaˁrmija-le-w=uw?
army-loc-m=q
‘Is he in prison or in the army?’
(92) ca
onemusːa-d
place.loc-nplk’e-d,
exist.up-npl∅-ik’-ul
m-say.ipfv-icvbca-w,
cop-mkːalk-me tree-pl ‘In one place, there are, he says, trees.’
6This refers only to the nominals that take the suffix-a. It is not the case that every nominal ending ina takes the suffix-a, e.g.ʡaˁrmija-le‘in the army’.
(93) sːurrat
‘putting (the pears) into a basket ...’
(95) d-i-h-ax-ub-le
‘We pour (the khinkal) into a pot with boiling (water) and cook it.’
When used together with the postpositionči-b, the loc-series can also express the meaning ‘above’ (see §8.1.7 on postpositions for an example).
When the locative suffix is followed by the ablative case, the meaning is ‘from, through’
(96), (97).
‘He came back from Makhachkala and had the operation.’
(97) aq
‘We roll up (the trousers) and go across the river.’
In the basic meaning, the loc-series is only used with inanimate nouns and can be opposed to the ad-series (§3.4.2.3), which is used with animate nouns to express the same general meaning. Thus, compare (98) and (106):
(98) du
In (99), the participle bearing the loc-ablative refers to a picture showing people who drink and the speaker is asked to begin his story with this picture.
(99) hel-tːi
‘First begin with these who drink!’ (said to a man)
The loc-essive can also be used for the expression of metaphorical location and direc-tion, e.g.di-la ʡuˁnru-le-b(1sg-gen life-loc-n) ‘in my life’, and for a number of construc-tions denoting feelings and emoconstruc-tions that are located in body parts or in persons (100), (101).
(100) u
The loc-series can also be used with animate nouns. In this case the spatial meaning is ‘on, onto’ and thus more specific than when used with inanimate nouns:
(102) heχ-tːi
‘the wounds on the mother’
(103) w-ax-ul
‘(he was) riding on a horse and shaking …’
Occasionally, one can find expressions for points in time marked by the loc-essive, e.g.
sːaˁʡaˁt kːaʔal-le-b(hour eight-loc-n) ‘at eight o’clock’. However, other cases such as the dative are more common in this function. The loc-ablative is regularly used in phrases with the meaning ‘after (time)’, e.g.k’ʷel ʡaˁbal minut’-le-r (two three minute-loc-abl)
‘after two, three minutes’.
Finally, the loc-ablative occurs in comparative constructions (104) marking the stan-dard of comparison (§30.1):
(104) ala
‘Yours (i.e. your story) is better than mine.’
Synchronically, all markers are allomorphs of the same case. For instance, in tusnaq-le-b(prison-loc-hpl) ‘in the prison’ vs.tusnaqːa-ja-b(prison.obl.pl-loc-hpl) ‘in the pris-ons’ the only difference is the number of the noun to which the case suffix is attached.
Furthermore, it is ungrammatical to have both the vowel change and a suffix-aor-ja with one and the same nominal, e.g. *ša-ja(village.loc-loc). Normally each nominal can apply only one operation to form the loc-series, but there are a few examples that prove that there is some variation, e.g.neqːevs.neqːi-le‘into the cave’ (cave.loc vs. cave-loc).
As the above description has shown, the distribution of the allomorphs used is at least in part lexically determined and needs further study.
Diachronically, all markers go back to formally and functionally unrelated markers.
This becomes clear when we compare Sanzhi to other Dargwa varieties. In her com-parative paper on spatial cases in Dargwa, van den Berg (2003b) provides spatial case paradigms of ten Dargwa varieties from north to south. For the analysis of the Sanzhi locative marker three groups of suffixes are relevant:
• some varieties have a suffix-jor-jawith the meaning ‘on’
• some varieties have-n(a)or-le(or variants thereof) with the meaning ‘in a hollow space’
• some varieties have-n(a),-la, or-le(or variants thereof) with a general locative meaning7
The Sanzhi locative case marker seems to be a mixture of all three groups. Formally its exponents correspond to suffixes from all three groups, and functionally the marker unifies the three different meanings. Other Dargwa varieties show a similar picture. For instance, Tanti Dargwa, another south Dargwa variety, has a super-series expressed with the suffix-jathat is part of the regular paradigm of spatial cases. In addition, it has a category ‘location’ (lokalizatsija) that is only formed from the direct stem of nouns in the singular (Sumbatova & Lander 2014: 66–68). This special form is used when expressing the most natural location of a figure with respect to the ground. As the Sanzhi locative, its formation is very heterogeneous by means of unproductive suffixes (-na,-ni), vowel change (i > e) or a switch of the pitch accent to the word final vowela. The Tanti examples parallel the examples of the Sanzhi locative given above.
Mekegi, a northern Dargwa variety, has a general locative suffix-lethat is directly added to the nominal stem. This suffix is mentioned in van den Berg 2003b, but unfor-tunately she does not provide examples or a description of its meaning. In the same paper, van den Berg suggests that this marker has cognates in Akusha Dargwa (-la) and Urakhi Dargwa (-la) and notes that its precise meaning requires further investigation.
The Akusha Dargwa grammar by the same author provides a few examples of the suffix -la, which is only added to inanimate nouns (van den Berg 2001: 24). On the same page, the grammar also mentions a couple of nouns with irregular locative forms that have shapes analogous to some of the Sanzhi words discussed in this section.
3.4.2.3 ad-lative -šːu, ad-essive-šːu-b, and ad-ablative -šːu-r
The series of spatial cases formed with the suffix -šːudenotes movement to a goal (the moving item is not further specified for precise location with respect to the goal), general location that can be broadly translated with ‘at, by, with’, and movement away from a source. The goal, location or source, i.e. the noun bearing the spatial case suffix, mostly has an animate referent. Thus, the loc-series and the ad-series are in a kind of ani-macy opposition. However, as (107) and (108) show, inanimate reference points are also allowed.
(105) na now
istikan-na glass-gen
juldašː-a-šːu friend-obl.pl-ad
ʁudur mix
∅-ič-ib
m-occur.pfv-pret ca-w cop-m
hel that
‘He mingled with his drinking friends.’
7Van den Berg (2003b) further hypothesizes that there is a connection between the markers for ‘in a hollow space’ and the general locative markers.
(106) na
‘They are going to the qadis, to the mullahs.’
(107) ag-ur-re
‘They went to the cave of the bear.’
(108) c’il
‘Then Amirhamza took a rifle.’ (lit. ‘went to the rifle’) (109) dajark’a-b-a-šːu-b
‘(We) left the car with the milkmaids.’ (in the place where the milkmaids used to work)
‘From him (they) brought a permission (lit. ‘letter’).’
3.4.2.4 in-lative -cːe, in-essive -cːe-b, and in-ablative -cːe-r
The suffix of the in-series is -cːe. The locational meaning can be roughly translated as
‘in’ (111), or ‘on, at’ (112), and its directional meaning is ‘to’ (113).
(111) ca
‘In one village lived a big family.’
(112) c’ili
‘Then, on the threshold, (he) took the flour, ...’
(113) χːuˁrba-cːe
‘No person at all should go to the graveyard.’
Note that in contexts such as ‘in a settlement’, ‘in a container-like object’ or ‘on a ver-tical surface’, it is possible to use the loc-series instead of the in-series with no semantic differences between the two variants. Thus, compare (111) with (96), (114) with (93), and (116) with (95).
(115) Murad
‘Murad knocked at the door.’ (E) (116) rurq-aˁn
‘You pour (them) into a pot with boiling (water).’
The in-ablative does not only translate as ‘from’ (117) and more specifically as ‘from within, out of’ (118), but is also used to denote ‘among, along, through’ (119). Thus, we find it in superlative constructions (120) (§30.1):
(117) ʡaˁli-l
‘Ali took away my bike.’ (E) (118) il
‘At this time that boy came out of the sack.’
(119) li<b>il-li-cːe-r
‘From all, from them (i.e. from all pictures on the table) (you) need to make one story.’
‘Was grandfather the oldest among his brothers?’
The in-lative has also more metaphorical uses when marking the goal-like argument of the verbsaq- ‘go through’ (121) orb-arχː- ‘be engaged in’ (122) and other predicates (123).
‘They dedicated themselves to their life (i.e. they cared for their living).’
(122) xːunul
‘The wife is engaged in her work.’
(123) du
‘Other (people) considered myself as rotten.’
Young speakers use the in-ablative alone (124) or in combination with the postposi-tion b-alli‘together’ to express the comitative. Older speakers reject such a usage by pointing out that the comitative case -cːellathat can be optionally combined with the same postposition (§3.4.2.1) is the only grammatical variant.
(124) hel-ka
‘From over there a little boy with a bike came.’
The in-essive is used in the temporal expression ‘in the year X’ (125).
(125) xːunul
‘I married in 1960.’
There are a number of non-spatial functions that the in-series fulfills. The in-essive expresses temporarily limited possessors (126).
(126) hel
The in-lative denotes temporarily limited recipients (127), addressees (128) and causees (129) (see §24.3 for reported speech constructions and §19.2.2 for causativization).
(127) [a man arrives in prison and receives the clothes of prisoners]
heχ-tːi
‘ The shoes, the trousers, the shirt is handed over to him.’
(128) hel
‘He is telling the stories to his family.’
(129) aba-l
‘Mother made Madina eat porridge.’ (E)
The in-ablative marks causers and causes (130), involuntary agents (131) and other non-canonical agents (132). In the involuntary agent construction, the verb cannot be transitive, i.e., it cannot have a genuine agent argument, but must be intransitive or labile. The added involuntary agent is thus rather an adjunct than an argument.
(130) cin-ni-cːe-r
‘the mistakes that he made (that happened through him)’
(131) di-cːe-r
‘I cannot do it well (lit. it will not go well from me).’
(132) heχ
dem.downxːunul-li-cːe-r
woman-obl-in-ablw-elqː-un
m-satiate.pfv-pretca-w cop-m
‘He had enough of his wife.’
3.4.2.5 sub-lative -gu, sub-essive -gu-b, and sub-ablative -gu-r
The suffix of the sub-series is-gu. The spatial meaning of the sub-series is ‘under’. It is added to the oblique form of the noun, but for many nouns the oblique form can be identical to the citation form (133–135).
(133) ag-ur
‘(She) went to pee under the bushes.’
(134) bari-gu-d
sun-sub-npld-ac’-ib-le
npl-thaw.pfv-pret-cvb…
‘(after having put the worms into a bottle of vodka) (they) dissolved in the sun,
…’
The sub-series has some more lexicalized (135) and metaphorical uses (136), (137).
(135) kari-gu-b
‘In ancient times when we were in Sanzhi we (usually) baked (bread) in the
‘In ancient times when we were in Sanzhi we (usually) baked (bread) in the