The
under mentioned cases are marked by suffixation as under:
Transitive
Agent and Instrumental
{-in}
‘by
Insensitive
Agent and Accusative
{ø}
‘something’
Allative
and Locative
{-a(h)}
‘to/at’
Genitive
{-ø,-a}
‘of’
Thus,
the core case relationships are ergative in character, i.e.
the intransitive agent and the object have the same {-zero}
realisation.
The under mentioned cases are marked periphrastically as under
:
Ablative
/à
ìnthkín/
‘from’
Dative
/kùomàh/
‘to’
We
may look at the realisation of each case in some detail.
3.2.1.7.1
Transitive
Agent and Instrumental
The
agent of a transitive verb and the instrumenal are realised
alike. Both are marked by {-in} and this is suffixed to nounstems
ending in either a vowel or a consonant
Agentive
/sìtá:ín
lèkhá á tìem/
‘Sita
reads (a) book’
/rá:m-ìn
bù: à fá:k tàh/
‘Ram
ate rice’
/sái-ín
mt
kù
à fá:k/
‘elephants
eat banana tree’
/rán-ín
inzàk à hríet nh/
‘animals
can’t feet shame’
/vàté-ìn
bù: án sèr/
‘birds
make nests’
Instrumental
/kùt-ín
bú: kán fà:k/
‘we
eat rice by hands’
/b
hrúi-ìn kán thlù/
‘we
tie cow with a rope’
/rán-ín/
‘by
the animal’ or ‘animals’
/vàté-ìn/
‘by
the bird’ or ‘birds’
/rán-ín
hnúoi éi ìnlèt/
‘we
plough with animals’
3.2.1.7.2
Intransitive
Agent and Accusative
The
agent of an intransitive verb and the accusative have the same
manifestation; that is, both are marked by {-zero}. Since both
do not
occur together in a sentence there is the least chance of confusion.
Agent
/sìtá-Ø
ánhù
tàh/
‘Sita
sat’
/rám-Ø
á fè tàh/
‘Ram
went’
/sàkéi-Ø
à ín tàh/
‘the
tiger is asleep’
Accusative
/rám-ìn
bù-Ø à fá:k tàh/
‘Ram
ate food’
/kè:l-Ø
kà vá:l/
‘I
rear goats’
/pùlís-ìn
rú:krù-Ø à vúok/
‘Police
beats the thief’
/khòp-ín
à:m-Ø
à hriet nh/
‘a
well-fed (person) does not know
(pain of) hunger’
Even
when any animate noun appears as an object of some action,
it behaves like an inanimate object and obtains {-zero} realisation.
3.2.1.7.3
Allative
and Locative
The
destination of some verb of motion and the locus of action
of the verb have the same manifestation. Both are overtly
marked by {-as} with optional deletion {-h}
kín/
à fá:k/
h/
hù
kín
sìkúl-àh/
h/
