Chapter 79The e- Applicative
Instrument, purpose, content, and place relations, with Nakagawa’s four constructional subtypes and Bugaeva’s lexical classification.
79.1 Four constructional types
Applicative e- adds an object whose role depends on the base verb. Nakagawa distinguishes four types by the kind of object and the availability of another construction with a similar meaning Nakagawa (2024: 194, table 37).
| Type | Typical meaning | Alternative in Nakagawa's account |
|---|---|---|
| Instrument | With, by means of | ani/ari |
| Purpose | For an activity | kusu |
| Other nonplace relation | Often about or concerning | No corresponding paraphrase supplied |
| Place | At, to, or through a place | ta, un, peka |
The alternatives belong to the specified constructions. Satō cautions that their functional differences are incompletely understood and that both alternatives are seldom equally usual with a given verb Satō (2008: 243).
79.2 Instrumental objects
The narrative speaker's feet are the applied object of “walk.” With an already transitive base such as “cut,” an instrument can become a second object beside the thing cut Nakagawa (2024: 193–194). The sword example illustrating that three-place frame appears in Chapter 78 (Applicative Constructions and Their Arguments).
A role that English treats as a direct object may enter through this construction. Nakagawa compares Horobetsu e-yapkir “throw something” with yapkir and a phrase in ari, treating the thrown material as instrument-like in the Ainu comparison Nakagawa (2024: 195, examples 178–179, from Chiri Yukie 1923).
79.3 Purpose and content
Nakagawa illustrates the purpose type with turepta e-arpa “go to dig lily bulbs,” beside turepta kusu arpa. He treats the one-place activity verb as used nominally in the applied construction Nakagawa (2024: 195). This illustrates a particular purpose frame; it is not a rule allowing an arbitrary purpose clause to be prefixed to any verb.
Other bases acquire a content or related participant without a corresponding postpositional paraphrase. Nakagawa gives mina → e-mina “laugh → laugh at” and simpay → e-simpay “worry → worry about” Nakagawa (2024: 195–196). Bugaeva's dictionary-based classification likewise finds Content the largest category among her e- applicatives: 39%, compared with 13% for Means/Instrument Bugaeva (2006: 190, table 1). These are shares of lexical entries in her classification, not frequencies of use in speech.
79.4 Places and paths
The place type includes Nakagawa's illustration to teksama e-an, “be at the lake's edge,” beside a construction with ta Nakagawa (2024: 196). He describes this type as frequent in verse and less usual in prose. A place can also be a path followed in motion.
‘You had better run under me.’
Nakagawa 2024: 196; Saru, Example 184, from Chiba University ed. 2015:1886, as reproduced by Nakagawa
A dried spawned-salmon head speaks while guiding the protagonist. The first e= marks the addressee; the second e- introduces the path.
Here i=corpokke is a person-marked locative expression. Nakagawa compares its applied use with a path expression in peka Nakagawa (2024: 196). The location noun contributes the spatial relation; its presence does not amount to retention of a case postposition.
79.5 Combination and homophony
Applicative e- can combine with other derivational elements. Bugaeva gives e-ko-isoytak, “tell someone stories about something,” with separate content and addressee relations Bugaeva (2006: 188). The limits on stacking and its relation to incorporation are described in Chapter 82 (Multiple Applicatives, Incorporation, and Relative Clauses).
Nominal e- in e-puni, “raise someone's head,” belongs to a different formation. Nakagawa analyzes it as referring to a part of the object and retaining two-place valency Nakagawa (2024: 191–192). The identical spelling has to be interpreted through the particular word and argument frame.