| Grammatical features |
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Syntax relationships |
Ingrammar, thecomitative case (abbreviatedCOM) is agrammatical case that denotes accompaniment.[1]: 17–23 InEnglish, the preposition "with", in the sense of "in company with" or "together with", plays a substantially similar role. Other uses of "with", like in the meaning of "using" or "by means of" (I cut bread with a knife), correspond to theinstrumental case or related cases.
The comitative case encodes a relationship of "accompaniment" between two participants in an event, called the "accompanier" and the "companion". In addition, there is a "relator" (which can be of multiple lexical categories, but is most commonly anaffix oradposition).[1]: 17–18 Use of the comitative case gives prominence to the accompanier.[2]: 602 ThisItalian sentence is an example:
In this case,il professore is the accompanier,i suoi studenti is the companion, andcon is the relator. As the accompanier,il professore is the most prominent.
Animacy also plays a major role in most languages with a comitative case. One group of languages requires both the accompanier and the companion to be either human or animate. Another group requires both to be in the same category: both human or both animate. A third group requires an animate accompanier and an inanimate companion. Other languages have no restrictions based on animacy.[2]: 603–604
The comitative case is often conflated or confused with other similar cases, especially theinstrumental case and theassociative case.
The comitative relates to an accompanier and a companion, and the instrumental relates to anagent, anobject, and apatient.[3]: 593 Enrique Palancar defines the role of Instrumental case as 'the role played by the object the Agent manipulates to achieve a change of state of the Patient.'[4] Even though the difference is straightforward, because the instrumental and the comitative are expressed the same way in many languages, includingEnglish, it is often difficult to separate them.
Russian is one of many languages that differentiate morphologically between instrumental and comitative:
Я
Ya
I
пойду
poydu
go
в
v
in
кино
kino
cinema
с
s
with
Я пойду в кино с мамой
Ya poydu v kino s mamoy
I go in cinema with mom.COM
'I'll go to the cinema with my mom.'
Я
Ya
I
нарезал
narezal
cut
хлеб
khleb
bread
Я нарезал хлеб этим ножом
Ya narezal khleb etim nozhom
I cut bread this.INSTR knife.INSTR
'I cut the bread with this knife.'[5]
In Russian, the comitative is marked by adding a prepositionс and by declining the companion in the instrumental case; the designс мамой as a whole becomes comitative. In the instrumental case, the object is declined, but no preposition is added.[5]
The comitative case is often confused with the associative case. Before the term comitative was applied to the accompanier-companion relationship, the relationship was often called associative case, a term still used by some linguists.[6]
It is important to distinguish between the comitative and the associative because the associative also refers to a specific variety of the comitative case that is used in Hungarian.[2]: 605
Grammatical case is a category of inflectional morphology. The comitative case is an expression of the comitative semantic relation through inflectionalaffixation, byprefixes,suffixes andcircumfixes. Although all three major types of affixes are used in at least a few languages, suffixes are the most common expression. Languages which use affixation to express the comitative includeHungarian, which uses suffixes;Totonac, which uses prefixes; andChukchi, which uses circumfixes.[2]: 602
Comitative relations are also commonly expressed by usingadpositions: prepositions, postpositions and circumpositions. Examples of languages that use adpositional constructions to express comitative relations are French, which uses prepositions;Wayãpi, which uses postpositions; andBambara, which uses circumpositions.[2]: 603
Adverbial constructions can also mark comitative relations, but they act very similarly to adpositions. One language that uses adverbs to mark the comitative case is Latvian.[2]: 603
The final way in which comitative relations can be expressed is byserial-verb constructions. In these languages, the comitative marker is usually a verb whose basic meaning is "to follow". A language which marks comitative relations with serial-verb constructions isChinese.[2]: 603
In Latvian, both instrumental and comitative are expressed with the prepositionar[1]: 102 However, it is used only when the companion is in accusative and singular or when it is in dative and plural. Otherwise the co-ordinating conjunctionun is used.[1]: 21
un
and
Nelda
Nelda.NOM
ar
Rudolfu
Rudolf.ACC
ļoti
very
nozīmīgi
significantly
uz
on
Ernestīni
Ernestine.ACC
un Nelda ar Rudolfu ļoti nozīmīgi pa-skatījās uz Ernestīni
and Nelda.NOM COM Rudolf.ACC very significantly at-look.PRET.REFL.3 on Ernestine.ACC
'And Nelda and Rudolf looked very knowingly at Ernestine.'[1]: 21
In the example above,ar is used because Rudolf, the companion, is in accusative and singular. Below, it is used in the other case that it is allowed, with a dative plural companion.
jo
because
prieka
fun.GEN
dzīvot
live.INF
zem
under
sveša
foreign.GEN
jumta
roof.GEN
un
and
vēl
still
ar
un
and
jo ne-bija ne-kāda prieka dzīvot zem sveša jumta un vēl ar vis-iem zirg-iem un rat-iem
because NEG-be.PAST.3 NEG-some.GEN fun.GEN live.INF under foreign.GEN roof.GEN and still COM all-DAT.PL horse-DAT.PL and cart-DAT.PL
'Because it was no fun to live under someone else's roof, especially with all the horses and the cart'.[1]: 307
In Estonian, the comitative (kaasaütlev) marker is the suffix-ga.[1]: 90
ja
and
Barber
Barber
rüüpa-b
drink-3SG
koos
together
Balthasari-ga
Balthasar-COM
sügava
deep.GEN
sõõmu
mouthful.GEN
ja Barber rüüpa-b koos Balthasari-ga sügava sõõmu
and Barber drink-3SG together Balthasar-COM deep.GEN mouthful.GEN
'And Barber takes a sip together with Balthasar.'[1]: 90
In Finnish, the comitative case (komitatiivi) consists of the suffix-ne with adjectives and-ne- + a mandatorypossessive suffix with the main noun. There is no singular-plural distinction; only the plural of the comitative exists and is used in both singular and plural senses, and thus it always appears as-ine-. For instance, "with their big ships" is
suuri-ne
laivo-i-ne-en
suuri-ne laivo-i-ne-en
big-COM ship-OBL-PL-COM-POS.3PL
while "with his/her big ships" is
It is rarely used and is mainly a feature of formal literary language, appearing very rarely in everyday speech.
The much more common, less formal way of expressing "with" is with the postpositionkanssa, e.g.,suurten laivojensa kanssa'with their big ships'. The two forms may contrast, however, since the comitative always comes with the possessive suffix and thus can only be used when the agent has some sort of possession of the thing expressed by the main noun. For instance,Ulkoministeri jatkaa kollegoineen neuvotteluja sissien kanssa,'The foreign minister, with [assistance from] his colleagues, is continuing the negotiations with the guerrillas', haskollegoineen'with his colleagues' contrasted withsissien kanssa'with the guerrillas', the former "possessed", the latter not.
Colloquial Finnish also has the postpositionkaa, derived fromkanssa and cognate with the Estonian-ga. With pronouns it is written as a suffix,-kaa. Compare alsoIngrian-nka/-nkä, e.g.,talonka'with a house'.
kaa
with
mun kavereitten kaa
1SG-GEN friend-GEN-PL with
'with my friends'
As there are manySami languages there are variations between them. In the largest Sami language,Northern Sami, the comitative case means either communion, fellowship, connection - or instrument, tool. It can be used either as anobject or as anadverbial.
It is expressed through the suffix-in in the singular and-iguin in the plural.
An example of the object use in Northern Sami isDat láve álo riidalit isidiin'She always argueswith her husband'. An example of the adverbial use isMun čálán bleahkain'I writewith ink'.[7]
In Hungarian, comitative case is marked by the suffix-stul/-stül, as shown in the example below.[8]
ruhá-stul
clothes-COM
és
and
cipő-stül
shoe-COM
az
the
ágy-ban
bed-INE
ruhá-stul és cipő-stül feküd-t-em az ágy-ban
clothes-COM and shoe-COM lie-PAST-INDEF.1SG the bed-INE
'I was lying in bed with my clothes and shoes on.'[8]
However, the comitative case marker cannot be used if the companion has a plural marker. So when the comitative marker is added to a noun, it obscures whether that noun is singular or plural.[8]
gyerek-estül
child-COM
nyaral-ni
vacation-INF
gyerek-estül men-t-ek nyaral-ni
child-COM go-PAST-INDEF.3PL vacation-INF
'They went on vacation with their child/children.'[8]
Chukchi uses a circumfix to express comitative case.
а'ачек
aʼaček
boy
а'ачек ңытоскычат-гьэ га-мэлгар-ма
aʼaček ňytoskyčat-gʹè ga-mèlgar-ma
boy ran.out-PERF COM.PRED-gun-COM.PRED
'The boy ran out with a gun.'[9]
In the example, the circumfix га⟩...⟨ма is attached to the rootмэлгар'gun' to express comitative.
InDrehu, there are two prepositions which can be used to mark comitative. Which of the prepositions is used is determined by the classes of the accompanier and companion.[10]
eni
ɑ
ixelë
meet
memin
lɑ
jɑjiny
girl
eni ɑ ixelë memin lɑ jɑjiny
1SG PRES meet COM ART girl
'I met (with) the girl.'[10]
The comitative marker inHausa is the prepositiondà. In Hausa, a prepositional phrase marked for comitative can be moved to the front of the sentence for emphasis, as shown in the examples below.[11]
(tàare)
(together)
dà
with
fa,
indeed
zoo
come
nannìyà
here
(tàare) dà yâara-n-shì fa, yaa zoo nannìyà
(together) with children-of-3SG.M indeed 3SG.M.PFV come here
'With his children indeed, he came here.'
(tàare)
(together)
dà
with
Bàlaa
Bala
née
jee
go
kàasuwaa
market
(tàare) dà Bàlaa née na jee kàasuwaa
(together) with Bala COP 1SG.RP go market
'It is with Bala that I went to the market.'[11]
In Hausa it is ungrammatical to do the same with coordinating conjunctions. For example, if the companions were "dog and cat", it would be ungrammatical to move either "dog" or "cat" to the front of the sentence for emphasis, while it is grammatical to do so when there is a comitative marker rather than a conjunction.[11]
The dictionary definition ofcomitative case at Wiktionary