Re: Noun Cases

>> I believe I found the answer after asking the question. I found a list
>> of cases. It defines Causative as "indicating causation by" and
>> Instrumental as "indicating means by which." So I guess it's the
>> difference between "he was hit BY a tree" and "he was hit WITH a tree"?
>> Or could Instrumental be used for both of these?
>
>That's how I understood it. Causative and Instrumental are also used in
the
>conlang I'm currently working at, Ayeri.
The one in "he was hit BY a tree" is just good ol' ergative,
or call it "agentive" if it feels less heretic than using the
term "ergative" outside the context of 'ergative' languages.

According to this(*) glossary, the causative is the case that
marks the cause of the situation; that is, what would answer
the question "Why?" ("why" is in a way the causative form
of "what"), which is expressed in English by "because of"
and "for". It exists as a morphological case for example in
Basque: "ZerGATIK egin duzu? Arrazoi askoRENGATIK" (whY have
you done it? FOR many reasons), "HorrENGATIK zigortu naute"
(they have punished me BECAUSE OF him/her [the one there]),
"HorrEGATIK zigortuko zaitugu" (we will punish you FOR that).
Though in Basque it is usually called "motivative" and I
think the label "causative" would suit better a case that
marked the 'causer' of a causative verb ("He made me do it"
might be expressed in some language as "he-CAUSER I-ERG
it-ACC do-PAST", something like "I did it _caused by_ him").

Cheers,
Javier

(*)
http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/WhatIsCausativeCas
e.htm

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