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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