illativedirectional

Illativedirectional is a proposed linguistic term describing a hypothetical grammatical category that merges illative meaning with directional meaning. In this conception, a single morphosyntactic marker encodes both the destination of motion (illative) and the orientation of that motion along a route. The term is used mainly in theoretical typology and in discussions of constructed languages to illustrate how spatial meaning might be fused into one marker rather than split across separate elements.

Etymology and usage: The name combines illative, a term from case systems that marks motion into a location, with directional marking that signals path orientation. It is not widely attested in natural languages and remains largely theoretical, appearing in scholarly discussions as an illustration of possible fusion patterns or in conlangs as a design option.

Morphology and syntax: An illativedirectional marker would likely be realized as a suffix, clitic, or fused circumfix attached to a noun or verb. It would interact with other spatial cases, agreement, and aspect or mood. Semantically, it would specify both the endpoint and the route or orientation, potentially requiring context to resolve ambiguity. This feature would differ from combining illative and directional markers separately.

Examples: In a hypothetical language, a noun tal meaning “village” could take a marker -idri to yield talidri, interpreted as “into the village along the main road toward the north.” A second variant might encode distinct directional subcategories (toward, along, away) within the same illativedirectional system.

See also: illative, directional case, spatial grammar.