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allative

 
Dictionary: al·la·tive   (ăl'ə-tĭv) pronunciation
adj.
Of, relating to, or being the grammatical case expressing motion toward a place, as Finnish stadionille "to the stadium."

n.
  1. The allative case.
  2. A word in the allative case.

[New Latin allātīvus, from Latin allātus, past participle of afferre, to bring toward : ad-, ad- + lātus, carried.]


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Wikipedia: Allative case
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Allative case (abbreviated ALL, from Latin allāt-, afferre "to bring to") is a type of the locative cases used in several languages. The term allative is generally used for the lative case in the majority of languages which do not make finer distinctions.

Finnish language

In the Finnish language, the allative is the fifth of the locative cases, with the basic meaning of "onto". Its ending is -lle, for example pöytä (table) and pöydälle (onto the top of the table). In addition, it is the logical complement of the adessive case for referring to "being around the place". For example, koululle means "to the vicinity of the school". With time, the use is the same: ruokatunti (lunch break) and ... lähti ruokatunnille ("... left to the lunch break"). Some actions require the case, e.g. kävely - mennä kävelylle "a walk - go for a walk".

See also Inessive case.

The other locative cases in Finnish and Estonian are:

Baltic languages

In the Lithuanian and Latvian languages the allative had been used dialectally as an innovation since the Proto-Indo-European, but it is almost out of use in modern times. Its ending in Lithuanian is -op which was shortened from -opi, whereas its ending in Latvian is -up. In the modern languages the remains of the allative can be found in certain fixed expressions that have become adverbs, such as Lit. išėjo Dievop ("gone to God", i.e. died), velniop! ("to hell!"), nuteisti myriop ("sentence to death"), rudeniop ("towards autumn"), vakarop ("towards the evening") , Lat. mājup ("towards home"), kalnup ("uphill"), lejup ("downhill").



 
 

 

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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Allative case" Read more