accusatively

Also found in: Thesaurus.

ac·cu·sa·tive

(ə-kyo͞o′zə-tĭv)

adj.

1. Of, relating to, or being the grammatical case that is the direct object of a verb or the object of certain prepositions.

2. Accusatory.

1. The accusative case.

2. A word or form in the accusative case.

[Middle English acusatif, from Old French, from Latin (cāsus) accūsātīvus, (case) of accusation (mistranslation of Greek aitiātikē (ptōsis), causal (case), (case) indicating the thing caused by the verb, from aitiā, cause, also accusation, charge), from accūsātus, past participle of accūsāre, to accuse; see accuse.]

ac·cu′sa·tive·ly adv.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

References in periodicals archive ?

For instance, Adang has three prefixes series, like Klon, but aligns them accusatively (Haan 2001).

'Give' constructions in the Papuan languages of Timor-Alor-Pantar

Indeed, K & W (1999: 470, presumably building on similar considerations in DeLancey 1981, 1985 and Dixon 1979: 93-95, 1994: 98-99) argue that linking in such languages follows a different rationale, which is not based on the degree of control of the actor over the event (which on their account triggers ergative marking under imperfective aspect in Yukatek), but on the relative prominence of actor and undergoer, the less prominent argument receiving marked case (so U is marked accusatively in the imperfective, while A is marked ergatively in the perfective).

Split intransitivity, linking, and lexical representation: the case of Yukatek Maya *