linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

, abessive (

abbreviated An abbreviation () is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method including shortening, contraction, initialism (which includes acronym), or crasis. An abbreviation may be a shortened form of a word, usually ended with a trailing per ...

or ), caritive (abbreviated ) and privative (

) is the

grammatical case A grammatical case is a category of nouns and noun modifiers (determiners, adjectives, participles, and Numeral (linguistics), numerals) that corresponds to one or more potential grammatical functions for a Nominal group (functional grammar), n ...

expressing the lack or absence of the marked noun. In English, the corresponding function is expressed by the

preposition Adpositions are a part of speech, class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in, under, towards, behind, ago'', etc.) or mark various thematic relations, semantic roles (''of, for''). The most common adpositions are prepositi ...

'' without'' or by the

suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns and adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can ca ...

'' -less.'' The name ''abessive'' is derived from "to be away/absent", and is especially used in reference to

Uralic languages The Uralic languages ( ), sometimes called the Uralian languages ( ), are spoken predominantly in Europe and North Asia. The Uralic languages with the most native speakers are Hungarian, Finnish, and Estonian. Other languages with speakers ab ...

. The name ''caritive'' is derived from "to lack", and is especially used in reference to

Caucasian languages The Caucasian languages comprise a large and extremely varied array of languages spoken by more than ten million people in and around the Caucasus Mountains, which lie between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. Linguistic comparison allows t ...

. The name ''

privative A privative, named from Latin language, Latin , is a particle (grammar), particle that negates or inverts the semantics, value of the root word, stem of the word. In Indo-European languages, many privatives are prefix (linguistics), prefixes, bu ...

'' is derived from "to deprive".

In Afro-Asiatic languages

Somali

In the

Somali language Somali is an Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language belonging to the Cushitic languages, Cushitic branch, primarily spoken by the Somalis, Somali people, native to Greater Somalia. It is an official language in Somalia, Somaliland, and Ethio ...

, the abessive case is marked by . For example: : "name" : "nameless" : "clothes" : "clothesless," i.e.,

naked Nudity is the state of being in which a human is without clothing. While estimates vary, for the first 90,000 years of pre-history, anatomically modern humans were naked, having lost their body hair, living in hospitable climates, and not ...

In Australian languages

Martuthunira

In Martuthunira, the privative case is formed with either or .

In Uralic languages

Finnish

In the

Finnish language Finnish (endonym: or ) is a Finnic languages, Finnic language of the Uralic languages, Uralic language family, spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. Finnish is one of the two official langu ...

, the abessive case is marked by for back vowels and for front vowels according to

vowel harmony In phonology, vowel harmony is a phonological rule in which the vowels of a given domain – typically a phonological word – must share certain distinctive features (thus "in harmony"). Vowel harmony is typically long distance, meaning tha ...

. For example: : "money" : "without money" An equivalent construction exists using the word and the

partitive In linguistics, a partitive is a word, phrase, or Grammatical case, case that indicates partialness. Nominal (linguistics), Nominal partitives are syntactic constructions, such as "some of the children", and may be classified semantically as either ...

: : "without money" or, less commonly: : "without money" The abessive case of

nouns In grammar, a noun is a word that represents a concrete or abstract thing, like living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, and ideas. A noun may serve as an object or subject within a phrase, clause, or sentence.Example n ...

is rarely used in writing and even less in speech, although some abessive forms are more common than their equivalent forms: : "unsuccessfully, fruitlessly" : "I cried for no reason." The abessive is, however, commonly used in nominal forms of verbs (formed with the affix / ): : "without speaking" : "without buying" : "without caring" : "The train didn't show up." This form can often be replaced by using the negative form of the verb: : "The train didn't show up." It is possible to occasionally hear what is considered wrong usage of the abessive in Finnish, where the abessive and forms are combined: : There is debate as to whether this is interference from

Estonian Estonian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Estonia, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe * Estonians, people from Estonia, or of Estonian descent * Estonian language * Estonian cuisine * Estonian culture See also

...

Estonian

...

also uses the abessive, which is marked by in both the singular and the plural: : "without a car" (the preposition "without" is optional) Unlike in Finnish, the abessive is commonly used in both written and spoken Estonian. The nominal forms of verbs are marked with the affix and the abessive marker : : "The train didn't show up."

Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...

has a pair of bars that play on the use of the

comitative In grammar, the comitative case (abbreviated ) is a grammatical case that denotes accompaniment. In English, the preposition "with", in the sense of "in company with" or "together with", plays a substantially similar role. Other uses of "with", l ...

and abessive, the (the nameless bar) and the (the bar with a name).

Skolt Sami

The abessive marker for nouns in

Skolt Sámi Skolt Sámi (, , ; or , , ) is a Sámi languages, Sámi language that is spoken by the Skolts, with approximately 300 speakers in Finland, mainly in Sevettijärvi and approximately 20–30 speakers of the (Notozero) dialect in an area surround ...

is or in both the singular and the plural: : "I cried for no reason." The abessive-like non-finite verb form (

converb In theoretical linguistics, a converb ( abbreviated ) is a nonfinite verb form that serves to express adverbial subordination: notions like 'when', 'because', 'after' and 'while'. Other terms that have been used to refer to converbs include ''adv ...

) is or : : "He/she went home without saying why he/she had come." Unlike Finnish, the Skolt Sámi abessive has no competing expression for lack of an item.

Inari Sami

The abessive marker for nouns in Inari Sámi is . The corresponding non-finite verb form is , or .

Other Sami languages

The abessive is not used productively in the Western Sámi languages, although it may occur as a

cranberry morpheme In linguistic morphology a cranberry morpheme (also called unique morpheme or fossilized term) is a type of bound morpheme that cannot be assigned an ''independent'' meaning and grammatical function, but nonetheless serves to distinguish one word ...

Hungarian

In Hungarian, the abessive case is marked by for back vowels and for front vowels according to

. Sometimes, with certain roots, the suffix becomes or . For example: : "money" : "without money" : "home(land)" : "(one) without a homeland" There is also the postposition , which also means without, but is not meant for physical locations. : "I drink tea without sugar." : "I lived without siblings." : "Did you come to Hungary without your sibling?"

In Mongolic languages

Mongolian

In Mongolian, the privative suffix is (). It is not universally considered to be a case, because the suffix does not conform to

or undergo any stem-dependent orthographical variation. However, its grammatical function is the precise inverse of the

comitative case In grammar, the comitative case (abbreviated ) is a grammatical case that denotes accompaniment. In English, the preposition "with", in the sense of "in company with" or "together with", plays a substantially similar role. Other uses of "with", l ...

, and the two form a pair of complementary case forms.

References

External links

Comparative concept caritive, as defined by the St.Petersburg project "Typology of caritive"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abessive Case Grammatical cases