Suffixaufnahme (German: [ˈzʊfɪksˌʔaʊ̯fˌnaːmə], "suffix resumption"), also known as case stacking, is a linguistic phenomenon used in forming a genitive construction, whereby prototypically a genitive noun agrees with its head noun. The term Suffixaufnahme itself is literally translated as "taking up of suffixes", which can be interpreted as the identical case marking of different but referentially-related phrases, with the presumption that nominal phrases possess a flat or non-configurational syntax. Across syntactic theories, case is seen as a bundle of features and case agreement as the identity of case features. It was first recognized in Old Georgian and some other Caucasian and ancient Middle Eastern languages as well as many Australian languages and almost invariably coincides with agglutinativity. The use of case stacking is not limited to genitive constructions although the genitive case is involved in the majority of occurrences across languages. Cross-linguistic variations in case stacking representation and functions can be found. In general, case stacking describes the phenomenon whereby a single word may bear multiple cases reflecting its relation to a number of different syntactic elements. It is important in the development of theories of inflectional morphology and the establishment of the relation between morphology and syntax.
Examples
Kayardild In Kayardild, the combination of adnominal cases (ablative and genitive) in possessor-like functions, and various relational and adverbial (e.g., spatial) cases is common. Case functions may be combined where ablative functions similar to a genitive adnominal case, and the instrumental case is applied to the entire noun phrase (NP), as can be seen in the following example:
From this example, all words of the relevant phrase share the case marking which is assigned to the phrase as a whole, namely, the instrumental case. This follows Evans's (1995) total concord principle, which states that case inflections are distributed over all sub-constituents regardless of the level they are originated from (i.e., the head or its dependents). A similar example can be illustrated:
In this example, every item is marked by the oblique case (OBL), which indicates the non–indicative mood. The object is marked with the modal ablative case (MABL) and the instrumental adjunct by the instrumental (INST), and the possessor phrase by an additional genitive (GEN) as well. In addition, Kayardild also has a system of modal (i.e., aspect-mood) cases, which involves the use of the same case suffixes found in the adnominal and adverbial systems. Non-subject NPs are marked for a case category that is determined by the aspect-mood domain they are in. For example, if the verb has the past suffixal inflection, all non-subject nouns then bear the modal ablative case (MABL).
The modal locative (MLOC) marks two constituents as being in the scope of the (unmarked) "instantiated" verb category, whereas the utilitive case (UTIL) expresses an expected use.
Case stacking and concord One of the functions of the modal cases proposed by Heath (2010) is that such internal operation of case stacking may mark the limits of the domain through the repetition of all nouns in the scopal domain of a clause-level inflectional category. The modal cases are used to define the boundaries of clauses. Case stacking is closely relevant to the concept of concord, which has also been studied in other case-stacking languages such as Lardil and Australian languages in general. The term "concord" is defined as "the morphological realization, on multiple words dominated by a syntactic node n, of a morphosyntactic feature value associated with n."
In this example, all three words are dominated by the matrix DP node, and all three bear a proprietive case (PROP). The words within the subordinate DP [balarrinabawu dangkanabawu] ('white man') are dominated by both the matrix and the subordinate node, so both bear the inflectional ablative case (ABL) and proprietive case (PROP). This clearly illustrates the relationship of concord, where the sub-constituents of a syntactic node (i.e., matrix DP, in this example) carry the associating morphosyntactic features.
Syntactic structure The height of the syntactic nodes where features and cases attach to within the tree can vary by the relative positions of their domains. When a word carries more than one feature, its relative syntactic height generally corresponds to the linear order of its morphological realization.
Lardil Lardil is an Australian language that allows case stacking, and nominals may surface with multiple case affixes. When new morphology is added to a nominal with a semantically uninterpretable case (e.g., accusative), the uninterpretable case is eliminated; however, when a semantically interpretable case is added (e.g., instrumental), the new morphology may be stacked outside the case morpheme. Richards (2013) argues that such uninterpretable cases are first assigned and then dropped.
From this example, the possessor of the direct object is marked with the genitive suffix ‐ngan first, then with another suffix -i to indicate accusative. It is presumed that the genitive case is assigned by DP internal structures, i.e., the determiner itself; whereas the subsequent cases and features are assigned by higher heads, i.e., the verb, in the above example. This example illustrates the two different sources for the cases involved in stacking, as the genitive case morpheme and the accusative case morpheme are c-commanded and assigned by different constituents. The order of case is also important in Lardil. In the following example (a), the direct object, wangalkuru [boomerang‐FUT-ACC], bears future case determined by tense concord within its own clause, and then followed by a subsequent accusative suffix determined by case concord with the subject maruni [boy‐ACC]. The affixes are arranged in that order, and the opposite order of affixation would yield an unattested form in (b).
It is suggested that the affixation order is determined by the order of their assignment. In (a), the future case is assigned by the T of the embedded control clause and the accusative suffix by the case concord with the subject. That results in the order of 'FUT-ACC' in the stacking of cases.
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