{{Short description|Grammatical case signifying "by way of ..." or "via ..."}} In grammar, the '''prolative case''' (abbreviated {{sc|'''prol'''}}), also called the '''vialis case''' (abbreviated {{sc|'''via'''}}), '''prosecutive case''' (abbreviated {{sc|'''pros'''}}), '''traversal case''', '''mediative case''', or '''translative case''',<ref name=Haspelmath>Haspelmath, Martin. ''Terminology of Case'' in ''Handbook of Case'', Oxford University Press, 2006.</ref> is a grammatical case of a noun or pronoun that has the basic meaning of "by way of" or "via".
In Finnish, the prolative case follows an established application in a number of fossilized expressions to indicate "by (medium of transaction)".<ref name="PanuMäkinen--AdvCases">{{cite web|last1=Mäkinen|first1=Panu|title=Finnish Grammar - Adverbial Cases|url=http://users.jyu.fi/~pamakine/kieli/suomi/sijat/sijatadverbien.html|website=users.jyu.fi|publisher=University of Jyväskylä|access-date=6 March 2015}}</ref> It can be used in other constructions, but then it does not sound "natural".<ref name="MaijaLänsimäki--Prolative">{{cite web|last1=Länsimäki|first1=Maija|title=Kirjeitse annettu määräys. Suomen kielen prolatiiveista|url=https://jkorpela.fi/kielikello/vesitse.html|access-date=13 April 2015}}</ref> Examples would be "postitse" ("by post"), "puhelimitse" ("by telephone"), "meritse" ("by sea"), "netitse" ("over the Internet"). A number of Finnish grammarians classify the prolative form as an adverb because it does not require agreement with adjectives like other Finnish cases.<ref name="Korpela-Finnish-Cases">{{cite web|last1=Korpela|first1=Jukka |title=Finnish Cases|url=https://jkorpela.fi/finnish-cases.html|website=www.cs.tut.fi|access-date=13 April 2015}}</ref> This claim is not true, however, because an adjective will agree with the prolative: "Hän hoiti asian pitkitse kirjeitse" ("He/she dealt with the matter by way of a long letter").{{fact|date=August 2024}}
The prolative exists in a similar state in the Estonian language.
The '''vialis case''' in Eskimo–Aleut languages has a similar interpretation, used to express movement using a surface or way. For example, in the Greenlandic language {{lang|kl|umiarsuakkut}} 'by ship'<ref>Richard H. Kölbl: ''Kauderwelsch Band 204, Grönländisch Wort für Wort'', {{ISBN|3-89416-373-9}}, page 37</ref> or in Central Alaskan Yup'ik {{lang|esu|kuigkun}} 'by river' or {{lang|esu|ikamrakun}} 'by sled'.
Basque grammars frequently list the ''nortzat / nortako'' case (suffix ''-tzat'' or ''-tako'') as "prolative" (''prolatiboa'').<ref>Check for example: Ilari Zubiri and Entzi Zubiri's ''Euskal Gramatika Osoa'' (Bilbao: Didaktiker, 1995); the [http://www.habe.org/ikaslearengunea/pdf/Deklinabidea.pdf declension reference] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927040111/http://www.habe.org/ikaslearengunea/pdf/Deklinabidea.pdf |date=2007-09-27 }} at the website of the Basque Autonomous Government's Institute for Euskaldunization and Alphabetization of Adults (HABE); etc.</ref> However, the meaning of this case is unrelated to the one just described above for other languages and alternatively has been called "essive / translative",<ref>Jon D. Patrick, Ilari Zubiri: ''A Student Grammar of Euskara'' (Munich: Lincom Europa, 2001) [https://linguistlist.org/issues/12/12-2831/]</ref> as it means "for [something else], as (being) [something else]"; e.g., ''hiltzat eman'' "to give up for dead", ''lelotzat hartu zuten'' "they took him for a fool".<ref>Examples (translated from Spanish) given in Luis Baraiazarra's ''Diccionario 3000 Hiztegia'' (available online at [http://www1.euskadi.net/hizt_3000/ euskadi.net]), under the entry for Spanish "dar" [http://www1.euskadi.net/cgi-bin_m33/DicioIe.exe?Diccionario=CAS&Idioma=CAS&Codigo=7931].</ref> The meaning "by way of" of the case labelled prolative in the above languages is expressed in Basque by means of the instrumental (suffix ''-[e]z'').
This case is also called the '''prosecutive case''' in some languages.<ref name=Haspelmath /> It is found under this name in Tundra Nenets,<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.helsinki.fi/~tasalmin/sketch.html |title= Tundra Nenets |author= Tapani Salminen |work= Department of Finno-Ugrian Studies, University of Helsinki, Finland |date= 2008-10-06 |access-date= 2008-12-30}}</ref> in Old Basque and, with spatial nouns, in Mongolian.<ref>Sechenbaatar [Sečenbaγatur], Borjigin. 2003. ''The Chakhar dialect of Mongol: a morphological description''. Helsinki: Finno-Ugrian society. {{ISBN|952-5150-68-2}}</ref>
==See also== * Perlative case
== References == {{reflist}}
==Further reading== * {{cite web |last= Anhava |first= Jaakko |year= 2015 |title= Criteria For Case Forms in Finnish and Hungarian Grammars |location= Helsinki |website= journal.fi |publisher= Finnish Scholarly Journals Online |url= https://journal.fi/store/article/view/52392/16242}}
==External links== *{{wti|prolative}}
{{Grammatical cases}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Prolative Case}} Category:Grammatical cases