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Superessive case

A nominal case function marking static location on a surface or upper region of a landmark.

Version
v1 · 2026-10-17 · History
Domain-specific #
14323
Domain group
Humanities
Origin domain
Linguistics & Semiotics
Subdomains
Morphology, Case Systems → Linguistics & Semiotics
Aliases
Superessive

Core Idea

A superessive case is a nominal case function for static location on a landmark’s surface or upper region. Hungarian a ház-on (“on the house”) marks the landmark ház in the static surface cell; it does not name the located figure.[^ref-d872b8e19667] The comparative name does not imply identical suffixes or uses.

Scope of Application

The comparison is limited to two attested nominal case paradigms, each marking a static surface relation in its own forms.

  • Hungarian: static -on contrasts with goal -ra and source -ról; superessive alternants include -n/-on/-en/-ön.[ref-d872b8e19667][ref-bcee43d2011a]
  • Lezgian: sew-re-l (“on the bear”) combines an oblique stem and surface localization. Static -l contrasts with goal -l-di and source -l-aj; localization and orientation are distinct.[ref-d304c8728b2a][ref-d872b8e19667]

These noun phrases are not full location statements. Other languages need their own case evidence; a free “on” does not suffice.

Clarity

Identify the marked landmark noun, the surface relation, and the static reading. Distinguish “on” from “in” or “under,” and static location from goal or source. Companion forms diagnose these examples, but are not universal prerequisites.[^ref-d872b8e19667]

Manages Complexity

The label compresses surface orientation plus static relation while preserving different realizations. Treating Lezgian -l as a universal one-piece suffix erases its oblique stem and localization/orientation analysis.[^ref-d304c8728b2a]

Abstract Reasoning

Hungarian: ház → landmark, -on → static surface cell, against -ra/-ról.[^ref-d872b8e19667] Lezgian: sew-re → oblique landmark stem, -l → surface cell, against -l-di/-l-aj.[ref-d872b8e19667][ref-d304c8728b2a] Neither phrase supplies a figure. The Lezgian static cell implies no overt goal/source material; it does not prove a zero morpheme.

Knowledge Transfer

Transfer the questions, then verify each language’s forms. Grammatical Case is the strict genus: every admitted superessive is a nominal case value, but many cases are not superessive. Physical surfaces, English prepositions, and geometric retrieval are outside this case function.

Relationships to Other Abstractions

Local relationship map for Superessive caseParents appear above the current abstraction, mutual partners to the right, and children below. Node labels state whether each abstraction is prime or domain-specific; colors identify relation types.Superessive caseDOMAINDomain-specific abstraction: Grammatical case — is a kind ofGrammatical caseDOMAIN

Current abstraction Superessive case Domain-specific

Parents (1) — more general patterns this builds on

  • Superessive case is a kind of Grammatical case Domain-specific

    A superessive is a language-specific nominal case value whose differentia marks static surface location.

Hierarchy path (1) — routes to 1 parentless root

Neighborhood in Abstraction Space

Superessive case sits in a sparse region of the domain-specific corpus (89th percentile for distinctiveness): few abstractions share its structure, so a faithful description tends to retrieve it precisely.

Family — Unclustered & Miscellaneous (2721 abstractions)

Nearest neighbors

Computed from structural-signature embeddings · 2026-10-17

References

[^ref-d872b8e19667]: Martin Haspelmath, “Terminology of Case”, in The Oxford Handbook of Case (2009). Author-uploaded prepublication manuscript directly inspected, especially §§4.3–4.4 and §7, printed manuscript pp. 6–7 and 10–11, examples (2) and (4). Manuscript pagination is not asserted to match the typeset handbook. [^ref-d304c8728b2a]: Ilya Yu. Chechuro, “The Semantics of APUD in Lezgian”, HSE Working Papers 15/LNG/2014 (2014). Full university-hosted original paper directly inspected, PDF p. 5, “The Structure of Lezgian Case System” and Table 1. The table attributes its case data to an earlier grammar. [^ref-bcee43d2011a]: Rachel Dudley, Agnes Melinda Kovács and Ernő Téglás (2023), “Testing the Syntax-Semantics Mapping for the Hungarian Inessive in Infancy via Reversible Participant Relations”, Proceedings of the 47th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, printed p. 230, §2 and Figure 1. Full original proceedings paper directly inspected. Its experiment is about inessive; only its independently stated case-paradigm figure is cited for superessive suffix forms.