Comitative case
Encyclopedia
The comitative case also known as the associative case (abbreviated ), is a grammatical case
that denotes companionship, and is used where English would use "in company with" or "together with" . Among other languages, it is found in Korean
, Finnish
, Hungarian
, Mongolian
, Estonian
, Japanese
and many Australian Aboriginal languages
where it is very commonly used to form names of places and languages.
singular comitative is formed by adding the suffix '-ga' to the genitive in case of singular:
And by adding the suffixes '-de' and '-ga' to the singular partitive
in case of plural, thus making first a plural genitive case and then adding the comitative suffix:
In the Estonian language
comitative is also used to denote when something is used as an implement - kirvega (with axe / using an axe) or as a means of transport laevaga (by boat).
, the comitative is rare and seldom used in spoken Finnish
. The suffix -ne is used alone only when it is an attribute of another word, otherwise additional possessive suffix
must be added, such as -ne+en, e.g. suurine vuorineen "with its large mountains". The Finnish literary comitative expresses only possessions or attributes, and as such does not replace the preposition "with". It has only a plural, which is, paradoxically, used to denote both the singular and the plural, e.g. tyttö koirineen "girl with her dog(s)".
In the expressions corresponding to the Estonian ones above, the adessive may be used, e.g. lehdillä "with leaves" or laivalla "by boat". The idea of "being in company" is expressed with genitive + kanssa, e.g. tyttö koiran kanssa "girl with dog". In spoken Finnish
, this abbreviates to a clitic
very similar to the Estonian comitative, -nkaa (via -nkans). It is debatable if this is a grammatical case, because it does not obey vowel harmony
; that is, there is no form -nkää. Some dialects do have such a form, however.
, the comitative uses the same particle as the coordinating conjunction to (and).
Yūbe tomodachi-to eiga-o mi-ni itta. ((I) went to the movies with friends last night.) (Lit: last.night friend(s)-with movie(s)-acc see-to went) Compare: tomodachi-to kazoku-wa hitsuyō da. (Friends and family are important.) (Lit: friends and family-TOP necessity COPULA.)
Grammatical case
In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun is an inflectional form that indicates its grammatical function in a phrase, clause, or sentence. For example, a pronoun may play the role of subject , of direct object , or of possessor...
that denotes companionship, and is used where English would use "in company with" or "together with" . Among other languages, it is found in Korean
Korean language
Korean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...
, Finnish
Finnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
, Hungarian
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
, Mongolian
Mongolian language
The Mongolian language is the official language of Mongolia and the best-known member of the Mongolic language family. The number of speakers across all its dialects may be 5.2 million, including the vast majority of the residents of Mongolia and many of the Mongolian residents of the Inner...
, Estonian
Estonian language
Estonian is the official language of Estonia, spoken by about 1.1 million people in Estonia and tens of thousands in various émigré communities...
, Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
and many Australian Aboriginal languages
Australian Aboriginal languages
The Australian Aboriginal languages comprise several language families and isolates native to the Australian Aborigines of Australia and a few nearby islands, but by convention excluding the languages of Tasmania and the Torres Strait Islanders...
where it is very commonly used to form names of places and languages.
Estonian
In the Estonian languageEstonian language
Estonian is the official language of Estonia, spoken by about 1.1 million people in Estonia and tens of thousands in various émigré communities...
singular comitative is formed by adding the suffix '-ga' to the genitive in case of singular:
- nina (nominative: nose) → nina (genitive: of nose) → ninaga (comitative: with a nose)
- koer (nominative: dog) → koera (genitive: of dog) → koeraga (comitative: with a dog)
And by adding the suffixes '-de' and '-ga' to the singular partitive
Partitive
In linguistics, the partitive is a word, phrase, or case that divides something into parts. For example, in the English sentence I'll have some coffee, some is a partitive determiner because it makes the noun phrase some coffee refer to a subset of all coffee...
in case of plural, thus making first a plural genitive case and then adding the comitative suffix:
- leht (nominative: leaf, page) → lehte (partitive: leaf) → lehtede (genitive: of leaves) → lehtedega (comitative: with leaves)
- kass (nominative: cat) → kassi (partitive: cat) → kasside (genitive: of cats) → kassidega (comitative: with cats)
In the Estonian language
Estonian language
Estonian is the official language of Estonia, spoken by about 1.1 million people in Estonia and tens of thousands in various émigré communities...
comitative is also used to denote when something is used as an implement - kirvega (with axe / using an axe) or as a means of transport laevaga (by boat).
Finnish
In the Finnish languageFinnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
, the comitative is rare and seldom used in spoken Finnish
Spoken Finnish
Colloquial Finnish is the "dialectless" colloquial standard of the Finnish language. It is spoken in the Greater Helsinki region, and in urbanized areas in the Tavastian and Central Finland dialectal areas, such as the cities of Jyväskylä, Lahti, Hyvinkää, and Hämeenlinna...
. The suffix -ne is used alone only when it is an attribute of another word, otherwise additional possessive suffix
Possessive suffix
In linguistics, a possessive affix is a suffix or prefix attached to a noun to indicate its possessor, much in the manner of possessive adjectives. Possessive suffixes are found in some Uralic, Altaic, Semitic, and Indo-European languages...
must be added, such as -ne+en, e.g. suurine vuorineen "with its large mountains". The Finnish literary comitative expresses only possessions or attributes, and as such does not replace the preposition "with". It has only a plural, which is, paradoxically, used to denote both the singular and the plural, e.g. tyttö koirineen "girl with her dog(s)".
In the expressions corresponding to the Estonian ones above, the adessive may be used, e.g. lehdillä "with leaves" or laivalla "by boat". The idea of "being in company" is expressed with genitive + kanssa, e.g. tyttö koiran kanssa "girl with dog". In spoken Finnish
Spoken Finnish
Colloquial Finnish is the "dialectless" colloquial standard of the Finnish language. It is spoken in the Greater Helsinki region, and in urbanized areas in the Tavastian and Central Finland dialectal areas, such as the cities of Jyväskylä, Lahti, Hyvinkää, and Hämeenlinna...
, this abbreviates to a clitic
Clitic
In morphology and syntax, a clitic is a morpheme that is grammatically independent, but phonologically dependent on another word or phrase. It is pronounced like an affix, but works at the phrase level...
very similar to the Estonian comitative, -nkaa (via -nkans). It is debatable if this is a grammatical case, because it does not obey vowel harmony
Vowel harmony
Vowel harmony is a type of long-distance assimilatory phonological process involving vowels that occurs in some languages. In languages with vowel harmony, there are constraints on which vowels may be found near each other....
; that is, there is no form -nkää. Some dialects do have such a form, however.
Japanese
In the Japanese languageJapanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
, the comitative uses the same particle as the coordinating conjunction to (and).
Yūbe tomodachi-to eiga-o mi-ni itta. ((I) went to the movies with friends last night.) (Lit: last.night friend(s)-with movie(s)-acc see-to went) Compare: tomodachi-to kazoku-wa hitsuyō da. (Friends and family are important.) (Lit: friends and family-TOP necessity COPULA.)
English
English also exhibits grammatical behavior which may be described as instances of the comitative case. The most prominent example is with the first person singular pronoun, although higher registers tend to avoid this usage via editing:- My dad and me haven't ever really been close.
- Me and my wife's favorite fish is mackerel.