Untitled - Caio - Index of

264Prolo-Indo-European Synlaxreferred to as the locatum; that which refers to the place of reference, islthe re atum.Suggestions for further reading: Fraenkel Syntax der Lith. Postposi_tionen und Priipositionen 1929; Starke Kasus und Adv. im A Hitt. 1977 .Luraghi Casi e preposizioni 1996.S 404. A common phenomenon of the linguistic development fromProto-Indo-European to the lE languages is case syncretism, which meansthat cases which were originally separate from each other and distinguish_able by their endings, were subsumed into a single ending. The spectrumof meaning 0: the rsulting case bec?mes correspondingly broad, renderingthe task of dlscerrung a basIC mearung of the case more difficult. For informationon morphology, cf. F 305 § 3.An intermediate stage in the fusion of one or more cases may be observedin which, according to number, or the context of gender or stemformation, the number of endings is smaller than the number of cases andthus, within one and the same paradigm, not all cases are formally durerentfrom ach ?ther in all numbers. The differentiation of cases is no longerparadigmatic, but rather syntactic. Thus, already in Proto-Indo-European,all eight of the cases may be differentiated only in the singular of nonneuterthematic nominal stems. The plural and dual of the same paradigmno longer perrmt the reconstruction of eight different case endings.In Latin, the ablative represents the merger of three cases: instrumental,ablative, and locative. In Greek, the PIE instrumental and locative casesmerged to form the dative, and the ablative was subsumed in the genitive.SuggestIons for further reading: Delbriick Synkretismlls 1907' H.Hettrich "Zum Kasussynkretismus im Mykenischen" in MSS 46 1985 p.111-122; M. Meier-Briigger "Zum VerhOllnis von Form und Funktiongrammatischer Kategorien" in Fachtagung Berlin 1983 [1985] p. 271-274.S 405. Nominative.The nominative occupies a special position within the nominal paradigmsof lE languages. This position is revealed by, among other things,the fact that in Old Indian -apart from neuter forms- all three numbers areformed on the basis of the strong stem and that tbe columnal nominal accentin Greek follows tbe accent position in the nominative case. Withinthe realm of syntax as well, tbe nominative traditionally plays a special roleas the casus rectus, which contrasts with all the other casus obliqui of theparadigm.'..,(JIl1lf\. aI Morphosynlaxminative indicates the theme of the sentence which, in a non-The no . . 'aI. .Oth- - , " ' 1 ..u_.265thi hd tence is placed in sentence-lfUtI poSItion. er sen encelernents are also thematized in taking the sentence-lfUtla poSition, w c , h non-marked sentence, is reserved for the subject.U1t.,';;'e Proto-Indo-European nominative .does not indicate the subject oft· 'm the logical sense but rather m the sense that appears to thean ac Ion ' . 'r to be bearer and middle-point of the actIon that IS expresse ythe ver .observehi dd bb " ( Delbriick Gr. Syntax 1879 p. 78). However, t S oes not. 'fi.h 'ddlI to the interrogative pronoun, which places ItS re erent m t e nn e-app even when it does not take the subject position and is not the bearer verbal action. The concept of the subject is itself difficult to grasp;or H.-J. Sasse it is, " ... a syntactical relation with semantic and pragmatIcfunctions ... [the] sentence element that is indicated as the subject has adoubled function as it is both pragmatic (as an indicator of the tOpIC of thesentence) and semantic (as an identifier of the agent). This double-. . . . . . ,,20function finds expressIon m ItS syntactIcal characterIstIcs.For further information: G. Serbat "Der Nominativ und seine Funklionals Subjektkosus im Lichte moderner Sprachtheorien" in G/otta 591981 p. 119-136.S 406.VocativeThe vocative is the nominal form that is used for addressing a listener.There is only a distinct vocative in the singular, and even then, not allnominal paradigms feature a separate vocative form. Where there IS novocative, its function is taken by the nominative. The same occurs whentwo actions of addressing are linked: While the first is in the vocative, thesecond is in the nominative. - Examples: r 276f. Zeii ltatep ... 'HEAlO,6' "Oh father Zeus and Helios"; RV 3, 25, 4 agna indras ca "Oh Agni andlndra"Suggestions for further reading: Svennung Anredeformen 1958;Zwolanek Anrufungsformen 1970.I) The vocative element in the sentence receives no accent. -Example:Rv I, 184, 2 asme u $U Vr$af}ii miidayethiim "Enjoy yourselves nicely, youtwo heroes, in our company."2) In Old Indian, when the vocative forms a sentence of its own, and is thusin sentence-initial position, it receives stress, regardless of its normal nominalaccent, on its first syllable, i.e. on the first syllable of the sentence. In this case,20 Subjektprominenz in FS Slimm 1982 p. 270