Partitivekõlõ

Partitivekõlõ is a proposed linguistic term used to describe a hypothetical grammatical construction that marks partial or incomplete objects in languages with a robust partitive system. The term is used mainly in theoretical discussions and is not part of standard grammars.

In proposed analyses, partitivekõlõ may be realized as a suffix, a particle, or a clitic attached to the noun or noun phrase. It commonly co-occurs with verbs of consumption, measurement, distribution, or accumulation and can interact with aspect, definiteness, and number. The marking signals that the referent is a portion rather than the whole.

Semantically, partitivekõlõ encodes partial quantity, indefiniteness, or non-totality. It tends to contrast with whole-object marking and may be restricted to mass nouns, pluralia tantum, or contexts involving fractions and portions. Syntactically, it often governs object complement structure and may affect agreement patterns or case-marking on surrounding elements.

The status of partitivekõlõ is tentative: it appears in a small number of typological discussions and has not achieved broad consensus. Some scholars treat it as a subtype of partitive marking, while others see it as a distinct strategy for signaling portional reference. Because it is not widely attested in published grammars, researchers typically present it as a theoretical option, illustrating how partial objects might be encoded in languages with a rich partitive system.

Example: In a hypothetical language, a sentence like "I drink water-partitivekõlõ" expresses "I drink some water," not necessarily all the water.