<p>The purpose of an adposition is to show how a noun relates to the rest of the sentence. In English, we indicate two particular types of relationship (subject and object) with nothing but word order, and use prepositions for all<sup>1</sup> the rest.</p>
<p>So what are some other ways of doing this, other than adpositions?</p>
<p>Case marking can take over a lot of these. In English we need to use prepositions to indicate possessors, beneficiaries, and circumstances. In Latin, there are special case markers for all three of those (genitive, dative, ablative). Old Hittite has even more, and can express things like location (locative) and destination (allative) with case alone. Finnish has even <em>more</em> and can express identity (essive), lack (abessive), accompaniment (comitative), and more. The more cases you have, the fewer prepositions you need.</p>
<p>Sometimes the line between case marking and adpositions can be blurry. Sumerian and Japanese both attach their case markers to phrases rather than words. Some people consider these cases; others consider them postpositions.</p>
<p>Another option is relational nouns, where these sorts of relationships are expressed by more specific nouns. Swahili has one standard way to combine nouns, and to get specific meanings like &quot;on&quot; or &quot;in&quot; or &quot;behind&quot;, you combine a noun with another noun meaning &quot;top surface&quot; (<em>juu</em>) or &quot;interior&quot; (<em>ndani</em>) or &quot;space behind&quot; (<em>nyuma</em>). It doesn't appear on that list, I imagine, because its &quot;one standard way to combine nouns&quot; acts a lot like an adposition, but you could replace that with a genitive case without losing anything.</p>
<p><sup>1</sup> Prepositions plus the postposition/clitic/case marker <em>'s</em>, which it's hard to put a label on because it behaves like nothing else in the language.</p>

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2023-07-17T19:37:26.113Z
2023-07-17T19:37:26.113Z
Draconis
<p>What does it look like with a language without adpositions of any kind? I saw there are about 30 languages without adpositions listed <a href="https://wals.info/feature/85A#2/14.9/153.1" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a>, but couldn't find resources on the ones I checked. I even found one case which I answered <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/asklinguistics/comments/5yokw6/a_language_without_prepositions/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a> of Somali avoiding adpositions:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>dekedda agteeda: near the harbour -&gt; [the harbour her vicinity]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But I couldn't find anything else. Could you provide a few examples of what it would look like in a few languages?</p>

<adpositions>
Languages without adpositions?
# Languages without adpositions?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2023-07-17)

What does it look like with a language without adpositions of any kind? I saw there are about 30 languages without adpositions listed [here](https://wals.info/feature/85A#2/14.9/153.1), but couldn't find resources on the ones I checked. I even found one case which I answered [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/asklinguistics/comments/5yokw6/a_language_without_prepositions/) of Somali avoiding adpositions:

> dekedda agteeda: near the harbour -> [the harbour her vicinity]

But I couldn't find anything else. Could you provide a few examples of what it would look like in a few languages?

**Tags:** adpositions


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2023-07-17. Score: 3 | Accepted answer

The purpose of an adposition is to show how a noun relates to the rest of the sentence. In English, we indicate two particular types of relationship (subject and object) with nothing but word order, and use prepositions for all1 the rest.

So what are some other ways of doing this, other than adpositions?

Case marking can take over a lot of these. In English we need to use prepositions to indicate possessors, beneficiaries, and circumstances. In Latin, there are special case markers for all three of those (genitive, dative, ablative). Old Hittite has even more, and can express things like location (locative) and destination (allative) with case alone. Finnish has even *more* and can express identity (essive), lack (abessive), accompaniment (comitative), and more. The more cases you have, the fewer prepositions you need.

Sometimes the line between case marking and adpositions can be blurry. Sumerian and Japanese both attach their case markers to phrases rather than words. Some people consider these cases; others consider them postpositions.

Another option is relational nouns, where these sorts of relationships are expressed by more specific nouns. Swahili has one standard way to combine nouns, and to get specific meanings like "on" or "in" or "behind", you combine a noun with another noun meaning "top surface" (*juu*) or "interior" (*ndani*) or "space behind" (*nyuma*). It doesn't appear on that list, I imagine, because its "one standard way to combine nouns" acts a lot like an adposition, but you could replace that with a genitive case without losing anything.

1 Prepositions plus the postposition/clitic/case marker *'s*, which it's hard to put a label on because it behaves like nothing else in the language.


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