Aversive case

The aversive or evitative case is a grammatical case found in Australian Aboriginal languages that indicates that the marked noun is avoided or feared.

Usage

For example, in Walmajarri:

Yapa-warnti	pa-lu	tjurtu-karrarla	laparnkanja	natji-karti.
child-ABS.PL	IND-they	dust-AVERSIVE	ran away	cave-ALL
The children ran into the cave because of the dust storm.

The suffix -karrarla indicates that the action (running away) was carried out in order to avoid the dust storm, tjurtu-.

The aversive may also be used to mark the object of verbs of fearing. For example, in Djabugay:

Djama-lan	ŋawu	yarrnga-nj.
snake-AVERSIVE	I	be afraid-PAST
I was afraid of the snake.

The aversive may be used on a nominalized verb, to produce an equivalent of English "lest". For example, "lest they be forgotten" could be encoded as "to avoid forgetting them".

Languages

Few languages have a distinct aversive case. Usually, a single case will be used both for the aversive and other functions.

Languages with a distinct aversive case include:

• Arrernte
• Djabugay
• Gumbaynggir
• Marri Ngarr
• Marrithiyel
• Walmajarri
• Warlmanpa
• Warlpiri
• Warumungu
• the Western Desert Language
• Yidinj

References

• Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-47378-0.