The meaning of locative case forms in the Ratlub variety of Southern Akhvakh

Muravyev N. A. Semantika lokativnykh padezhnykh formv ratlubskom govore yuzhnoakhvakhskogo yazyka. Acta Linguistica Petropolitana. 725.

This paper concerns the meaning of locative case forms in the Ratlub variety of Southern Akhvakh. Like other Nakh-Dagestanian languages Akhvakh exhibits a large case system including a subsystem of locative forms which consist of orientation and case affixes and denote a relation between an object and an orienter. Locative case markers point at the concrete position of the object whereas orientation markers describe the nature of the orienter such as its type, size, shape, density etc. The category of orientation tends to be diachronically unstable and semantically vague which often results in overlapping use of multiple markers with non-trivial disribution. The study focuses on the use of IN and SUPER forms describing contact localization, the use of IN and INTER forms in the meaning of close contact with the oritenter as well as the personal locative use of AD and APUD forms. It is shown that the possibility of more than one orientation marker in a given context is mostly motivated by multiple ways to conceptualize the orienter and the situation of contact.