Instrumentaalsele

Instrumentaalsele is a term used in linguistics to denote a proposed morphological form that marks instrumentality—the means by which an action is performed—in certain language typologies. The term is not widely standardized and appears mainly in typological discussions and in some constructed-language grammars as a way to model how instrumental meaning might be encoded morphologically.

Origin and formulation: The name combines "instrumental" with a suffix -aalsele, conventionally treated as a stem that can receive case and number markings in analytic descriptions. In theoretical accounts, instrumentaalsele may be analyzed as a nominal or adjectival stem that inflects for number and definiteness and attaches to a noun to form an instrumental phrase.

Function and use: The primary function is to mark the instrument or means by which an action is performed, typically within a noun phrase that interacts with the predicate. Descriptions contrast instrumentaalsele-marked phrases with prepositional instruments (such as with or by) and with fully fledged instrumental cases found in other languages.

Occurrence and status: Instrumentaalsele is a theoretical construct rather than a consensus feature of a widely spoken language. It serves as a tool for cross-linguistic comparison and for illustrating how different grammars encode instrumentality.

See also: Instrumental case, Grammatical case, Typology. References: For discussions of instrumental marking in typology, see general works on linguistic case systems and constructional morphology.