Semblative case

The semblative case is a grammatical case that denotes the similarity of one entity to another.

In Wagiman

Wagiman, an indigenous Australian language, has a semblative case suffix -yiga, that is functionally identical to the -like suffix in English, as in the example:

gahan

that

mamin

white man

dup-pa

sit-ASP

ga-yu

3SG-be

jilimakkun-yiga

woman-SEMBL

gahan mamin dup-pa ga-yu jilimakkun-yiga

that {white man} sit-ASP 3SG-be woman-SEMBL

That white man sits like a woman

In English

English has a number of semblative derivational suffixes, including -like and -esque.

Texas Man Catches Fish With Human-Like Teeth [1]

However, as in many other languages, semblativity in English is marked with derivational affixes instead of being an inflectional case.

See also

References
  1. "Local6.com - Local News - Texas Man Catches Fish with Human-Like Teeth". Archived from the original on 2006-08-16. Retrieved 2006-07-19.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.