genitivedative

Genitivedative is a term used in linguistic typology to denote a proposed grammatical category that combines the functions of the genitive and the dative in a single morphosyntactic form. In analyses that posit a genitivedative, a noun marked as such encodes both possession (a genitive relation) and the beneficiary or indirect recipient (a dative relation). The term is a portmanteau of genitive and dative and is largely confined to theoretical discussions and discussions of languages with fused possession and recipient marking.

Status and debate: The existence of a true, single genitivedative case is controversial. It is not widely attested in well-described languages, and many researchers prefer analyses that treat possession and beneficiary meaning as separate grammatical layers or as a single marker with polyfunctional interpretation rather than a distinct case. Some studies in historical and contact linguistics use the term as a heuristic to describe complex and overlapping case systems.

Typological implications: When invoked, genitivedative is discussed in relation to ditransitive syntax, case fusion, and polysemy. It raises questions about how languages encode ownership and beneficiary in a single form, how such forms interact with agreement, word order, and cliticization, and how they develop diachronically from separate genitive and dative markers.

See also: genitive, dative, ditransitive construction, case fusion, polysemous case.