The typology and diachrony of partitives

Partitive cases constitutes a rather heterogeneous category. They may be defined formally, when the notion is confined primarily to languages with a dedicated partitive case, such as Finnish and Basque. From a functional perspective, in turn, also other languages may have morphemes that express the same function, e.g. other cases (such as the genitive in several Indo-European languages) or other formal means (adpositions, verbal cross-reference etc.). Functionally, partitive case markers can be used to express an array of functions. Typically, they are related to expression partiality or indefiniteness, but often also to lower transitivity. What is most notable is that there is no link between partitive cases and a specific grammatical relation: partitive cases can code subjects and direct objects; in addition, they may code adverbials and appear with adpositions in some languages. Formal and functional properties of partitive case markers are discussed thoroughly in this paper from a cross-linguistic perspective. The paper also includes a discussion of the diachrony of partitive case markers.