Suffixaufnahme

Across syntactic theories, case is seen as a bundle of features and case agreement as the identity of case features. It was first recognized in Old Georgian and some other Caucasian and ancient Middle Eastern languages as well as many Australian languages and almost invariably coincides with agglutinativity.

The use of case stacking is not limited to genitive constructions although the genitive case is involved in the majority of occurrences across languages. Cross-linguistic variations in case stacking representation and functions can be found. In general, case stacking describes the phenomenon whereby a single word may bear multiple cases reflecting its relation to a number of different syntactic elements. It is important in the development of theories of inflectional morphology and the establishment of the relation between morphology and syntax.

Examples

Kayardild

In Kayardild, the combination of adnominal cases (ablative and genitive) in possessor-like functions, and various relational and adverbial (e.g., spatial) cases is common. Case functions may be combined where ablative functions similar to a genitive adnominal case, and the instrumental case is applied to the entire noun phrase (NP), as can be seen in the following example:

dan-kinaba-nguni

this-ABL-INS

dangka-naba-nguni

man-ABL-INS

mirra-nguni

good-INS

walbu-nguni

raft-INS

'with this man's good raft' (Evans 1995: 105)

From this example, all words of the relevant phrase share the case marking which is assigned to the phrase as a whole, namely, the instrumental case. This follows Evans's (1995) total concord principle, which states that case inflections are distributed over all sub-constituents regardless of the level they are originated from (i.e., the head or its dependents).

A similar example can be illustrated:

Maku-ntha

woman-OBL

yalawu-jarra-ntha

catch-PAST-OBL

yakuri-naa-ntha

fish-MABL-OBL

dangka-karra-nguni-naa-ntha

man-GEN-INST-MABL-OBL

mijil-nguni-naa-ntha

net-INST-MABL-OBL

'The woman must have caught fish with the man's net.' (Kracht 2003: 37)

In this example, every item is marked by the oblique case (OBL), which indicates the non–indicative mood. The object is marked with the modal ablative case (MABL) and the instrumental adjunct by the instrumental (INST), and the possessor phrase by an additional genitive (GEN) as well.

In addition, Kayardild also has a system of modal (i.e., aspect-mood) cases, which involves the use of the same case suffixes found in the adnominal and adverbial systems. Non-subject NPs are marked for a case category that is determined by the aspect-mood domain they are in. For example, if the verb has the past suffixal inflection, all non-subject nouns then bear the modal ablative case (MABL).

birangkarra

long.time

bi-l-da

3-PL-NOM

mardala-tha

paint-ACT

dangka-walath-i,

man-a.lot-MLOC

ngimi-marra-y

night-UTIL-MLOC

'They have been painting the men for a long time, getting ready for (the dance) tonight.' (Evans 1995: 109)

The modal locative (MLOC) marks two constituents as being in the scope of the (unmarked) "instantiated" verb category, whereas the utilitive case (UTIL) expresses an expected use.

Case stacking and concord

One of the functions of the modal cases proposed by Heath (2010) is that such internal operation of case stacking may mark the limits of the domain through the repetition of all nouns in the scopal domain of a clause-level inflectional category. The modal cases are used to define the boundaries of clauses.

Case stacking is closely relevant to the concept of concord, which has also been studied in other case-stacking languages such as Lardil and Australian languages in general. The term "concord" is defined as "the morphological realization, on multiple words dominated by a syntactic node n, of a morphosyntactic feature value associated with n."

In this example, all three words are dominated by the matrix DP node, and all three bear a proprietive case (PROP). The words within the subordinate DP [balarrinabawu dangkanabawu] ('white man') are dominated by both the matrix and the subordinate node, so both bear the inflectional ablative case (ABL) and proprietive case (PROP). This clearly illustrates the relationship of concord, where the sub-constituents of a syntactic node (i.e., matrix DP, in this example) carry the associating morphosyntactic features.

Syntactic structure

The height of the syntactic nodes where features and cases attach to within the tree can vary by the relative positions of their domains. When a word carries more than one feature, its relative syntactic height generally corresponds to the linear order of its morphological realization.

Lardil

Lardil is an Australian language that allows case stacking, and nominals may surface with multiple case affixes. When new morphology is added to a nominal with a semantically uninterpretable case (e.g., accusative), the uninterpretable case is eliminated; however, when a semantically interpretable case is added (e.g., instrumental), the new morphology may be stacked outside the case morpheme. Richards (2013) argues that such uninterpretable cases are first assigned and then dropped.

Ngada

I

derlde

break

marun-ngan-i

boy-GEN-ACC

wangalk-i.

boomerang-ACC

'I broke the boy's boomerang.' (Richards 2012: 20)

From this example, the possessor of the direct object is marked with the genitive suffix ‐ngan first, then with another suffix -i to indicate accusative. It is presumed that the genitive case is assigned by DP internal structures, i.e., the determiner itself; whereas the subsequent cases and features are assigned by higher heads, i.e., the verb, in the above example. This example illustrates the two different sources for the cases involved in stacking, as the genitive case morpheme and the accusative case morpheme are c-commanded and assigned by different constituents.

The order of case is also important in Lardil. In the following example (a), the direct object, wangalkuru [boomerang‐FUT-ACC], bears future case determined by tense concord within its own clause, and then followed by a subsequent accusative suffix determined by case concord with the subject maruni [boy‐ACC]. The affixes are arranged in that order, and the opposite order of affixation would yield an unattested form in (b).

(a)Attested form

Ngada

I

kangka

say

marun-i

boy-ACC

were-thuru-Ø

throw-FUT-ACC

wangalk-uru-Ø.

boomerang-FUT-ACC

'I told the boy to throw the boomerang.' (Richards 2012: 21-22)

(b)Unattested form

*wangalk-in-ku(r)

boomerang-ACC-FUT

It is suggested that the affixation order is determined by the order of their assignment. In (a), the future case is assigned by the T of the embedded control clause and the accusative suffix by the case concord with the subject. That results in the order of 'FUT-ACC' in the stacking of cases.

Korean

Korean exhibits the patterns of case stacking. In general, the language prohibits a nominal from bearing both the nominative and the accusative cases at the same time. However, the nominal can appear in the dative case, the nominative case, or the accusative case or in multiple cases in which one is stacked on top of the other.

철수에게가

Chelswu-eykey-ka

Chulsoo-DAT-NOM

돈이

ton-i

money-NOM

필요하다

phil-yoha-ta

need-IN

'Chulsoo needs money." (Gerdts & Youn 2000: 1)

In this example, the nominative case morpheme -ka is optionally suffixed to the subject (i.e., "Chulsoo") in addition to the dative suffix -eykey. The nature and assignment of -ka in the context of case stacking is an ongoing debate. In addition, the acceptance of case stacking in Korean-speakers may vary upon context. Some speakers may need to consider case stacking in particular contexts to accept it (e.g., spoken context). However, judgment studies also show that Korean speakers judge double accusative ditransitives as unacceptable, but they are not completely avoided in completing sentences. In fact, case stacking is difficult for speakers to accept in most situations unless a particle such as man 'only' or kkaci 'even' intervenes between the dative and nominative case markers such as the following example:

나에게만이

Na-eykey-man-i

I-DAT-only-NOM

뱀이

paym-i

snake-NOM

무섭다

mwusepta

fearful

'Only I am afraid of snakes.' (J. Yoon 1996: 110)

Case stacking has been used in various inflectional suffixes in other languages, but it is ungrammatical in Korean to stack the negator before a predicate. That is different from the restrictions on multiple occurrences of the negative prefixes in Korean, which states that a predicate can have only one of these prefixes. That results in the ungrammaticality of forms such as *pul-pul-A, *pi-pi-A, etc. However, the short-form negation an(i) can precede a negative prefix such as pu(l)-, pi-, and mi- but not before another short-form negation of an(i) itself. That results in attested forms such an(i) pul-kanungha- 'impossible', and an(i) pi-kwahakceki- 'unscientific', as well as unattested forms like *an(i) an(i) kanungha-, and *an(i) an(i) kwahakceki-.

Sumerian

In Sumerian, affixes are arranged in a specific order in the noun phrase and so may not necessarily be directly attached to nouns. The phenomenon is known as double case marking or case displacement.

dumu

son

tur

young

lugal

king

gal~gal

great

kalam.ak.ak.ene.ra

homeland-GEN-GEN-PL-DAT

'for the young sons of the great kings of the homeland' (Michalowski 2020)

In this example, the genitive NP [kalam] ("homeland") has been assigned multiple markers in reference to the head noun "sons", namely, the genitive marker -ak, the plural -ene, and the dative case -ra. Sumerian nouns may be marked for case, therefore, possessive relationships (e.g., genitive), plurals, and case marking are expressed by suffixed morphemes, which stack onto one another within the noun phrase.

Old Georgian

A subject in Old Georgian, for instance, would be marked by a subjective affix, as well as a genitive affix:

perx-ni

foot-NOM.PL

k'ac-isa-ni

man-GEN-NOM.PL

'a man's feet'

In this example, the genitival noun phrase agrees in case (nominative) and number (plural) with the head noun. However, while such a possessive construction is most frequently found in Suffixaufnahme, other nominal constructions may also show similar behavior. In Old Georgian, a postpositional phrase modifying a noun may take on the features of the noun's case and number:

"Ra

turpa

prinvelia!"

c'amoidzaxa

ert-ma

one-ERG

bavshv-ta-gan-ma

child-GEN.PL-from-ERG

"'What a wonderful bird!' exclaimed one of the children"

This example has the ergative (also called "narrative") case -ma on ertma repeated in the modifying postpositional phrase, which is headed by -gan.

Kashmiri

Case stacking in Kashmiri occurs mostly with the genitive construction. By adding the suffix -hund or -sund to the noun, its modifier indicates the gender and the number. The genitive takes the case marker of the argument's function and so is marked with the ablative case before a postposition.

kor-en-hɨnd-is

girl[F]-OBJ.PL-GEN.F.PL-OBJ.SG

mukābal-as=manz

comparison[M]-OBJ.SG=in

'in comparison to the girls' (Verbeke 2017: 11)

In this example, the suffixes -en, -hind, and -is are stacked onto each other after the stem [kor] ("girl") to indicate the respective genitive and ablative cases that are involved.