Comparative case
Grammatical case
The comparative case (abbreviated comp) is a grammatical case which marks a nominal to indicate comparison with another entity through the designation of a case marker. It is not to be confused with the semblative case, a discrete grammatical case which expresses the similarity of one entity to another. The comparative case is distinct from comparative degree in that the comparative case involves morphemes appearing on nouns, while in comparative degree morphemes appear on adjectives or adverbs.
01Examples
Uralic languages
An example of a comparative case which designates similarity to something is found in Mari, where the comparative case is the suffix -la (-ла) as in (1):
(1)колла
kol-la
fish-COMP
колла
kol-la
fish-COMP
'like fish'
Mari also uses the comparative case when denoting the language a person is speaking, writing, or hearing. Then, however, the accentuation varies slightly from the standard case. Usually, the suffix is not stressed. When it is used to denote a language, however, it is stressed.
In another Uralic language, Erzya-Mordvin, the comparative case suffix is -ška. The case is generally used to indicate similarity in size or quantity.
(2) a.кудошка
kudo-ška
house-COMP.INDEF
кудошка
kudo-ška
house-COMP.INDEF
'as big as a house'
(2) b.ветешка
veťe-ška
five-COMP.INDEF
ветешка
veťe-ška
five-COMP.INDEF
'about five'
Caucasian languages
An example of the comparative case marking the noun serving as the standard of comparison comes from the Chechen suffix -l. For example, the comparative suffix appears on sha 'ice' in shal shiila 'cold as ice':
(3)sha-l
ice-COMP
shiila
cold
sha-l shiila
ice-COMP cold
'as cold as ice'
The comparative case can also be found in Archi, a Northeast Caucasian language:
(7)ʁuli-xur
dog-COMP
bošo
big
ʁuli-xur bošo
dog-COMP big
'Bigger than the dog.'
Turkic languages
Similarly, in the Turkic language Sakha (Yakut), the noun serving as the standard of comparison can be marked with the comparative case suffix -TĀGAr .
(4)бу
Bu
DEM
ыт
ït
dog
аттааҕар
at-taaɣar
horse-COMP
түргэнник
türgennik
quickly
сүүрэр
süür-er
run-PRES
бу ыт аттааҕар түргэнник сүүрэр
Bu ït at-taaɣar türgennik süür-er
DEM dog horse-COMP quickly run-PRES
'This dog runs faster than a horse'
This latter sense of comparative case is similar to locational comparatives, where a locational case such as the ablative marks the noun in a standard of comparison, found in Turkic languages such as Uzbek:
(6)ɔt-am
father-POSS.1SG
u
that
ɔdam-dan
man-ABL
yɔš
young
ɔt-am u ɔdam-dan yɔš
father-POSS.1SG that man-ABL young
'My father is younger than that man'
Language isolates
Nivkh is another language with this comparative case suffix (-yk/-ak):
(5)Tlaņi
reindeer
ķanņ-ak
dog-COMP
eɣ-d
be.fast-PRES
Tlaņi ķanņ-ak eɣ-d
reindeer dog-COMP be.fast-PRES
'A reindeer is faster than a dog'
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Comparative case”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
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