Query: Case for ?approximate location?

Gontzal Aldai gontzal.alday at EHU.ES
Fri Feb 6 16:41:19 UTC 2009


Dear typologists,

Does anyone know of any language which has a specific case-marker or  
adposition for conveying (something like) ?approximate location?.  
Also, what kind of term is then used for referring to such a case.

One may think that the expression of path (e.g. ?perlative? case, ?a  
case expressing ?through?, ?across? or ?along?? Blake 1994: 204) may  
be somehow related to this idea of ?approximateness?. The same may  
also apply to directionals (?towards?) (cf. Creissels 2009: 618-619),  
and/or to ?circumlocationals? (?around?). However, all the cases just  
mentioned seem to be primarily related to movement (e.g. change of  
position), whereas I am looking for a case conveying location (e.g  
position).

But now it would seem that this type of case has some particular  
property that makes them: a) be related to the concept of  
?approximateness? or ?roughliness? (?more-or-less-ness?), and b)  
(perhaps because of that) be readily applicable to both ?changes of  
position? and ?positions?. This may be exemplified by English  
?towards?, which can be applied no only to movement but also to  
locative contexts such as the following: ?you can find that example  
towards the end of page five?.

Does anybody know of any work examining the possibility that the idea  
of ?approximate change of position? may be associated with  
?approximate position? (or the other way around). Is there any  
established path relating these two concepts? Is there any  
(uni)directionality in this putative path?

Thanx in advance, G.A.



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