Elativeprepositional

Elativeprepositional is a linguistic term used to describe a construction that expresses origin or source, combining elative semantics with a prepositional realization. The label is not universally standard, but it is used in some typological and historical grammars to note how the source relationship is encoded in a given language—either through a dedicated elative case or through a prepositional phrase.

In languages with an elative case, the noun inflects to signal movement from or out of a location, typically without a separate preposition. For example, in Finnish the elative suffix -sta/-stä is used, as in talosta “from the house.” In other languages, a similar meaning is expressed by a postposed or separate preposition or postposition (for example, “from the house” with a preposition in English).

Across languages, the elative denotes source, starting point, or de-movement and often cooccurs with verbs of motion, change of state, or source attribution. Realization can be entirely morphological (a noun ending in an elative form), entirely prepositional, or a mix in languages with rich case systems and flexible syntax.

The elativeprepositional label helps linguists distinguish between purely locative or directional forms and those that encode origin as a source feature, regardless of whether that feature is realized by a case ending or by a preposition. It thus highlights a common cross-linguistic function—motion away from a reference point—even when the surface form differs.

See also: Elative case, Preposition, Postposition, Locative case.