Re: Mixed person plurals: gender & the (in/ex)clusive distinction; !Ora

Hello, Ray, and others.
--- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, R A Brown <ray@c...> wrote:
> [snip]
> Just two small points:
> tomhchappell wrote:
> >If you look at all the "lative" cases, you will see that all of
them
> >have to do with motion from or to a location or spatial
relationship.
> >ablative == motion from
> >allative == motion to
> >elative == motion above
> Eh? Since when has the prefix e- meant 'above'!!!!
> The elative in Finnish IIRC denotes motion "out of" which is what
one
> would expect from that Latin _elatum_ (supine of _eferre_). It
should be
> the opposite of the 'illative' case.
> >illative == motion into
> >sublative == motion under or beneath
> >translative == motion across.
Using Google to look it up, I find only two uses of "elative" in the
first ten hits.

As a case, "elative" is just what Ray says it is in Finnish; "motion
out of" something, or at least so Wikipedia and the other sources
available in Googles top-ten hits say.

As a degree of comparison (a grade or gradation?), "elative"
apparently means something like "intensely", without implying "more
so than something else"; so it's not "comparative" nor "superlative",
yet it is more than "positive".

We can't always count on the meaning of the prefixes to transparently
guide us to the meanings of the cases.  Finnish's "translative" case
does not refer to "motion across" (which better describes
the "prolative" case);  rather, it is a kind of transmogrificational
case.

teacher-ESSIVE "as a teacher"
teacher-EXCESSIVE "while leaving the teaching profession"
teacher-TRANSLATIVE "in becoming a teacher"

Or, at least, so I understand it.

---------

ISRT IIRC that my forgotten source, whoever it was (could it have
been David Crystal?), for that language, whichever it was (apparently
not Finnish, unless the source was wrong or I misremembered or
misunderstood), used "elative" as the name of a case referring
to "motion above" whatever.

I couldn't understand why "elative" didn't refer to "motion out of".
I would have thought "motion above" would be called "superlative".

I got the idea that my source thought "superlative" was the name of a
grade, and so couldn't be used as the name of a case.

But en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elative_(gradation) says elative is also
the name of a grade, as well as of a case.

So, here's the question;

What /would/ be a good name for a case referring to "motion above"?
Would "perlative" or "hyperlative" or "superlative" be good names?
Would there be a better one?

----
Thanks,
Tom H.C. in MI

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