genitivedativelocative

Genitivedativelocative is a term used in linguistic theory to denote a hypothetical single grammatical case that encodes three functions—genitive, dative, and locative—within a single morphological marking or clitic. In this conception, a noun phrase in this case simultaneously marks possession (genitive), the recipient or beneficiary of an action (dative), and location or direction (locative). The idea appears in typological discussions and in discussions of multifunctional marking; it is not a widely attested feature of natural languages.

Morphology and syntax: The genitivedativelocative may be realized as a suffix, enclitic, or fused with a preposed particle. Its exact shape varies by language; in some models the marker attaches to the possessed noun, while in others it attaches to the entire noun phrase. In analytic systems the information is carried by a single marker, while in synthetic or agglutinative systems the functions may be decomposed into sub-motifs that are still presented as a single unit overall.

Semantics and usage: Because it fuses three meanings, the genitivedativelocative can produce ambiguity without clear contextual or syntactic cues. Theoretical work considers how such a fusion would interact with agreement, clausal structure, and the distribution of possessive, beneficiary, and locative relations across sentences.

Example: In a constructed language, a suffix -eta attached to a possessed noun marks genitive, dative, and locative simultaneously. The phrase mira-bók-eta can be glossed as "Mira's book for the child in the park." The sentence structure remains simple, while the case marker encodes multiple functions in one unit.

See also: genitive, dative, locative cases; case fusion; typology; constructed languages.