Directionalallative

Directionalallative is a term used in linguistic typology to describe a directional variant of the allative case. It marks movement toward a location with an emphasis on the direction or path taken, rather than merely the destination. In languages that employ location and motion grammars, the directionalallative can be analyzed as a distinct case or as a specialized allative marker.

It differs from a standard allative in that it encodes directional nuance such as approach along a route, orientation relative to a reference axis, or movement along a specified trajectory. Some descriptions treat it as a composite category combining allative meaning with directional or path semantics; others regard it as an extension of the allative with peri-directional functions.

Morphology and syntax: The directionalallative is typically realized as a suffix, postposition, or clitic attached to the noun or determiner, and it often co-occurs with other directional cases like locative or ablative. It chiefly occurs with verbs of motion or posture-changing verbs and can interact with aspect or evidentiality. The marking may encode fine-grained distinctions such as direction of travel (toward, along, up slope) or path type (road, river).

Cross-linguistic evidence remains limited and is mostly discussed in theoretical work or in descriptions of languages with rich case systems. It is commonly associated with agglutinative or fusional languages; analytic languages rarely employ a dedicated directionalallative as a separate, bounded category.

Example (hypothetical): tal-le “toward the house along the route,” used with a verb of motion to form “go tal-le” meaning “go toward the house along the road.”

See also allative, case marking, motion grammar.