In linguistics, ablative case (abbreviated ABL) is a name given to cases in various languages whose common characteristic is that they mark motion away from something, though the details in each language may differ. The name "ablative" is derived from the Latin ablatus, the (irregular) perfect passive participle of auferre "to carry away".
Contents |
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | -ā | -ō | -e / -ī | -ū | -ē |
| Plural | -īs (-ābus) | -īs (-ōbus) | -ibus | -ibus | -ēbus |
The Latin ablative case (ablativus) has at least fifteen documented uses; although some classicists[who?] have stated that there are additional unique uses. Generalizing their function, however, ablatives modify or limit nouns by ideas of where (place), when (time), how (manner), etc. Hence, the case is sometimes also called the adverbial case; this can be quite literal, as phrases in the ablative can be translated as adverbs. E.g. magnā (cum) celeritāte, literally "with great speed", may also be translated "very quickly."
Active motion away from a place is only one particular use of the ablative case and is called the ablative of place from which. Nouns, either proper or common, are almost always used in this sense with accompanying prepositions of ab/ā/abs, "from"; ex/ē, "out of"; or dē, "down from". E.g. ex agrīs, "from the country"; ex Graeciā ad Italiam navigāvērunt, "They sailed from Greece to Italy."
A closely related construction is called the ablative of separation. This usage of the ablative implies that some person or thing is separated from another. No active movement from one location to the next occurs; furthermore, ablatives of separation sometimes lack a preposition, particularly with certain verbs like cáreō or līberō. E.g. Cicerō hostēs ab urbe prohibuit, "Cicero kept the enemy away from the city"; Eōs timōre līberāvit, "He freed them from fear."
The Latin ablative may also be used to indicate:
Of kindred nature to this is the Ablative of Attendant Circumstances "magno cum clamore ciuium ad urbem perueniunt" ("they reach the city to the great clamours of the populace")
This can, however, be more generalized when the agent is an inanimate object. In this case, the preposition ab/ā/abs is not used. E.g. "rex a militibus interfectus est" "the king was killed by the soldiers" as opposed to "rex armis militum interfectus est" "the king was killed by the weapons of the soldiers." This is known as simply the ablative of agent
Other known uses of the ablative include the ablatives of cause, of comparison, of degree of difference, of description, of place where, and of specification. Important: Not all ablatives can be categorized into the classes mentioned above!
Some Latin prepositions, like pro, take a noun in the ablative. A few prepositions may take either an accusative or an ablative, in which case the accusative indicates motion towards, and the ablative indicates no motion. E.g. in casā, "in the cottage"; in casam, "into the cottage".[1]
The ablative case is found in Albanian where it is the fifth case and is called "mënyra rrjedhore"
The ablative case is also found in Sanskrit where it is the fifth case, and is called 'apaadaana'. [2]
In the Western Armenian language, the ablative case is rendered by the suffix -e (indefinite) or -en (definite).
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 are derived 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.
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").
The Finnish ablative is also used in time expressions to indicate start times as well as with verbs expressing feelings or emotions.
The Finnish ablative has the ending -lta or -ltä according to the regular rules of vocal harmony.
Usage
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).
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
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
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