comitativne

Comitativne, commonly referred to in English-language grammar as the comitative, is a grammatical category that marks accompaniment. It indicates that another participant is present with the subject or object of an action. The realization of comitative meaning varies across languages: it can be encoded as a dedicated comitative case on the noun or pronoun, as a postposition or preposition governing the noun, or as a clitic attached to a word or verb. In all cases, the function expresses social co-presence rather than instrumentality or means.

Typological patterns differ. Some languages have a true comitative case with noun inflection; many others express comitative meaning through adpositions (such as a preposition or postposition meaning “with”) or by using the instrumental case in conjunction with specific syntax. The terminology and analysis can vary among grammars, with comitative often treated alongside instrumental and associative expressions as related but distinct categories.

Examples illustrate the range. Turkish marks comitatives with the postposition ile after the noun to mean “with,” as in Ali ile geldi (came with Ali). Russian commonly encodes accompaniment by the instrumental case with the preposition s, as in Я иду с другом (I go with a friend). These examples show how the same semantic relation—accompaniment—is realized through different grammatical devices in different languages.

Comitative is a cross-linguistic category in linguistic typology, distinct from but related to instrumental and other means-expression. See also comitative case, instrumental case, preposition, and postposition.