locatieve

Locatieve, in linguistic usage, refers to the locative case, a grammatical category used in some languages to mark location. In Dutch-language grammars the term locatieve is commonly employed to describe this function and is often treated as equivalent to the English “locative case.” The locative marks where an action occurs or where something is located, and it can appear on nouns, pronouns, or on related words as part of a larger case system.

In languages with a dedicated locative, nouns typically take a specific ending or undergo a stem change to signal location. In many languages, however, location is expressed not by a distinct case but by prepositions or postpositions that accompany the noun. Some languages contrast locative with related functions such as inessive (inside), adessive (on top of), or illative (into), forming a broader subsystem of location markers.

The function of the locative varies cross-linguistically. It most commonly conveys spatial location (in, at, on) but can also mark the referent of an event, such as the place where something is said or done. In several language families, notably Slavic languages (Polish, Czech, Russian) and some Baltic and Finno-Ugric languages, forms historically associated with location have been integrated into comprehensive case systems or reduced to prepositional usage in modern varieties.

Notable historical and typological notes include the Latin locative used with city names and small islands, and the continuities observed in Slavic prepositional forms that functionally express locational meaning. Today, the locative concept remains relevant in historical linguistics and typology as a standard reference for how languages encode location.