|
This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. |
| |
In grammar, ablative case (abbreviated abl) is a grammatical case (a type of noun inflection) in various languages that is used generally to express motion away from something, although the precise meaning may vary by language. The name "ablative" derives from the Latin ablatus, the (irregular) perfect passive participle of auferre "to carry away". There is no ablative case in English.
Indo-European languages
Latin
Main article: Ablative (Latin)
Nouns in the Latin ablative case (ablativus) are mainly used adverbially to modify verbs.
The ablative case has numerous uses, descending from three Proto-Indo-European cases: ablative (from), instrumental (with), and locative (in/at).
Greek
In Ancient Greek, there was no ablative case; its functions were taken by the genitive, so that the genitive had functions belonging to the Proto-Indo-European genitive and ablative cases.[1] The genitive case with the prepositions ἀπό apó "away from" and ἐκ/ἐξ ek/ex "out of" is an example.
Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian
As in Ancient Greek, the functions of the ablative case in Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian are performed by the genitive case. Of three forms of genitive in Serbian, as well in Croatian and Bosnian, namely partitive, possessive and ablative, the noun in the ablative genitive marks the origin of something, so as departure or detachment from it.
Albanian
The ablative case is found in Albanian where it is the fifth case and is called rasa rrjedhore.
Sanskrit
The ablative case in Sanskrit is the fifth case (panchami) in the grammar, and has similar function to that of Latin.
Sanskrit nouns in this case often refer to a subject "out of" which or "from" whom something (an action, an object) has arisen or occurred—e.g., patram vṛkṣāt patati "the leaf falls from the tree".
This case is also used for nouns in several other senses, e.g., where the action occurs "because of" or "without" a certain noun; nouns indicating distance or direction. When it appears with a comparative adjective, e.g. śreṣṭhatamam, "the best," the ablative is used to refer to that which the adjective is comparing, "better than X".
Armenian
In the Western Armenian language, the ablative case is rendered by the suffix -e (indefinite) or -en (definite).
- Mart - man
- Marten - from the man
- Marte - from (a) man
- Doon - house
- D'nen - from the house
- D'ne - from (a) house
In Eastern Armenian, the suffix -its is used for both definite and indefinite nouns.
Mard- man
Mardits- from man
Toon- house
T'nits- from house
Both suffixes derive from Classical Armenian. The Western suffix -e is from the Classical singular and the Eastern suffix -its is from the Classical plural; both have been generalized for singular and plural in the dialects that use them.
In Armenian, the ablative case has several uses.
- Its principal function is to show motion away from a point in space or time.
- KAGHAKEN katsi. - I came FROM THE CITY. (Eastern Armenian; KAGHAKITS gnets)
- ASTEGHEN heroo g'abrei. - I used to live far FROM HERE. (Ea. ASTEGHITS heroo ei b'nakvoom)
- The case also shows the agent when used with the passive voice of the verb.
- INE misht g' sirveis. - You were always loved BY ME. (Ea. INDZITS misht eis sirvoom)
- AZAD'CHNEREN azadetsank. - We were freed BY THE LIBERATORS. (Ea. AZATOGHNERITS azatfetsink)
- The ablative case is also important to comparative statements in colloquial Armenian.
- Inch MEGHREN anoosh eh? - "What is sweeter THAN HONEY?" (proverb) (Ea. Inch MEGHRITS e anoosh?)
- Mariam EKHPEREN b'zdig eh. - Mary is smaller (younger) THAN HER BROTHER. (Ea. Maro AKHBERITS e bakas)
- In this use, the ablative can also be used with infinitives and participles.
- Tooz hamdesel e lav DESNALE. - Figs are better to taste THAN TO SEE. (Ea. T'zner hamtesel e laf TESNELITS)
- The ablative case is also important to case government with postpositions.
- INE var - Below ME (Ea. INDZITS var)
- KEZME ver - Above YOU (Ea. KEZITS ver)
- ANONTSME verch - After THEM (Ea. N'RANITS verj)
- MEZME arach - Before US (Ea. MEZNITS araj)
Uralic languages
Finnish
In Finnish, the ablative case is the sixth of the locative cases with the meaning "from, off, of", e.g. pöytä – pöydältä "table – off from the table". It is an outer locative case, used just as the adessive and allative cases to denote both being on top of something and "being around the place" (as opposed to the inner locative case, the elative, which means "from out of" or "from the inside of"). In the locative meaning, the receding object was near the other place or object, not inside it.
The Finnish ablative is also used in time expressions to indicate start times (e.g. kymmeneltä "at ten") as well as with verbs expressing feelings or emotions.
The Finnish ablative has the ending -lta or -ltä according to the regular rules of vowel harmony.
Usage
- Katolta
- Off the roof
- Pöydältä
- Off the table
- Rannalta
- From the beach
- Maalta
- From the land
- Mereltä
- From the sea
- to stop some activity with the verb lähteä
- lähteä tupakalta
- stop smoking (in the sense of putting out the cigarette one is smoking now; literally 'leave from the tobacco')
- lähteä hippasilta
- stop playing the game of tag (hippa=tag, olla hippasilla=playing tag)
- to smell/taste/feel/look/sound like something
- haisee pahalta
- smells bad
- maistuu hyvältä
- tastes good
- tuntuu kamalalta
- feels awful
- näyttää tyhmältä
- looks stupid
- kuulostaa mukavalta
- sounds nice
Hungarian
The ablative case in Hungarian is used to describe movement away from a solid object. For example, if one is walking away from a friend one could say:
a barátomtól jövök - I am coming (away from) my friend.
Note that this case in this example implies that the user was next to the solid object, and not inside it. This means that if one said
a postától jövök it would mean one is coming from being stood next to the post office, and that you were not inside the building.
The application of vowel harmony gives two different suffixes: -tól and -től. These are applied to back- and front-vowel words respectively.
Its partners for movement towards a solid object and for being next to that solid object are the allative case and the adessive case respectively. Its partners that correspond to movement away from, or out of, something are the delative case (for movement from a surface or from a Hungarian city) and the elative case (for movement out of a container or from out of an international city).
Turkic languages
Azeri
The ablative in Azeri (çıxışlıq hal) is expressed through the suffixes -dan or -dən. Examples:
Ev - evdən
House - from/off the house
Aparmaq - aparmaqdan
To carry - from/off carrying
Turkish
The ablative in Turkish (-den hali or uzaklaşma hali) is expressed through the suffixes -den, -dan, -ten, or -tan. Examples:
Ev - evden
House - from/off the house
At - attan
Horse - from/off the horse
Taşımak - taşımaktan
To carry - from/off carrying
Ses - sesten
Sound/volume - from/off sound/volume
In some situations simple ablative can have a ”because of” meaning, in these situations ablative can be optionally followed by ”dolayı” (because of) preposition.
Yüksek sesten (dolayı) rahatsız oldum. / I was uneasy because of high volume.
References
External links
- What is the ablative case?
- Ablative case in Hungarian
This article was sourced from Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. World Heritage Encyclopedia content is assembled from numerous content providers, Open Access Publishing, and in compliance with The Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act (FASTR), Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., Public Library of Science, The Encyclopedia of Life, Open Book Publishers (OBP), PubMed, U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and USA.gov, which sources content from all federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial government publication portals (.gov, .mil, .edu). Funding for USA.gov and content contributors is made possible from the U.S. Congress, E-Government Act of 2002.
Crowd sourced content that is contributed to World Heritage Encyclopedia is peer reviewed and edited by our editorial staff to ensure quality scholarly research articles.
By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. World Heritage Encyclopedia™ is a registered trademark of the World Public Library Association, a non-profit organization.