linguistics Linguistics is the science, scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure ...

, the pegative case (

abbreviated An abbreviation (from Latin ''brevis'', meaning ''short'') is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method. It may consist of a group of letters or words taken from the full version of the word or phrase; for example, the word ''abbrevia ...

) is a hypothetical

grammatical case A grammatical case is a category of nouns and noun modifiers ( determiners, adjectives, participles, and numerals), which corresponds to one or more potential grammatical functions for a nominal group in a wording. In various languages, nomin ...

that prototypically marks the

agent Agent may refer to: Espionage, investigation, and law *, spies or intelligence officers * Law of agency, laws involving a person authorized to act on behalf of another ** Agent of record, a person with a contractual agreement with an insuranc ...

of an action of giving. The case has been posited by Danish linguist

Søren Wichmann Søren Wichmann (born 1964) is a Danish linguist specializing in historical linguistics, linguistic typology, Mesoamerican languages, and epigraphy. Since June 2016, he has been employed as a University Lecturer at Leiden University Centre for Li ...

for the Azoyú variety of the

Tlapanec language Tlapanec , or Meꞌphaa, is an indigenous Mexican language spoken by more than 98,000 Tlapanec people in the state of Guerrero. Like other Oto-Manguean languages, it is tonal and has complex inflectional morphology. The ethnic group themselves ...

, which seems to be the only natural language to use such a case. Wichmann writes that he has: However, the posited Tlapanec case system is verbal, and it is controversial whether

verbal case Verbal may refer to: People *Verbal (rapper) (born 1975), Japanese rapper and music producer * Verbal Kent (born 1978), alternative hip hop artist from Chicago * Verbal Jint (born 1980), South Korean musician, rapper and record producer Language ...

as such actually exists.

Notes

References

* {{Grammatical cases Grammatical cases