genitivdativul

Genitivdativul refers to a grammatical category found in some historical and comparative grammars, defined as a single case form that combines the functions of the genitive and the dative. It is not a standard feature of modern Romanian grammar, but rather a concept used to describe how certain languages once encoded possession and indirect objects with the same morphological ending.

In historical and comparative perspectives, the genitiv-dativ form arises in languages with rich case systems where oblique cases are fused in particular contexts. The basic idea is that one form serves both to express ownership or association (genitive) and to indicate the indirect object or recipient (dative). The exact distribution and usage of such a form can vary between languages and historical periods, and disambiguation often relies on syntactic position or accompanying particles rather than on the case ending alone.

Morphology associated with a genitivdativul is typically characterized by endings or markers that resemble genitive or dative patterns, sometimes showing a partial merger of the two. In some descriptions, the function of possession and of giving or benefiting is highlighted, with context or prepositional cues helping to clarify the intended reading when ambiguity could arise.

In contemporary Romanian, genitive and dative remain distinct, and the term genitivdativul is generally reserved for historical discussion or cross-linguistic study rather than for describing current usage. The concept remains a useful reference point in studying how languages handle possession and indirect objects, and in comparing how different languages treat oblique roles within a single grammatical form.

See also: genitive, dative, oblique cases, historical grammars.