Universal #43

Legacy number: 43

 Number  43
 Original  New (not borrowed) case forms enter the nominal morphology through the affixation of adpositions, but such a development is possible only if the unmarked word order in the NP is either (a) (modifiers and/or numerals) N (postposition), or; (b) (preposition) N (modifiers and/or numerals).
 Standardized  Case affixes can be grammaticalized from adpositions only if the noun is not separated from the adposition in the unmarked word order in the NP; i.e., if the unmarked order is either (a) (Modifiers and/or Numerals) N Postposition, or (b) Preposition N (Modifiers and/or Numerals).
 Keywords  case, adposition, preposition, postposition, NP, noun, modifier, numeral, order, grammaticalization
 Domain  inflection, syntax
 Type  target < source
 Status  diachronic
 Quality  almost absolute
 Basis  languages mentioned in Kahr 1976
 Source  Kahr 1976: 145

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Discussion
Counterexamples
To (a): Nivkh (isolate) (Panfilov 1974) and Sel’kup (S. Samoyedic, Uralic) (Bekker 1974), where a postposition may be reduced to a suffix while not being affixed exclusively to nouns.
Notes
1. Context (a) leads to suffixed and context (b) to prefixed morphemes.2. Kilby 1981: 130 comments that what might be claimed instead of (i) is really (ii), assuming the Kahr’s pattern (b) does not really occur and that Nivkh and Sel’kup are no anomalies: (i) Independent postpositions develop into "cases" if and only if they immediately follow the head noun of a noun phrase in all circumstances. (ii) Independent case markers develop into dependent case markers after noun phrases.
Comment
Frans Plank · 3 Aug 2006
1. Context (a) leads to suffixed and context (b) to prefixed morphemes.

2. Kilby 1981: 130 comments that what might be claimed instead of (i) is really (ii), assuming the Kahr's pattern (b) does not really occur and that Nivkh and Sel'kup are no anomalies:

(i) Independent postpositions develop into "cases" if and only if they immediately follow the head noun of a noun phrase in all circumstances.
(ii) Independent case markers develop into dependent case markers after noun phrases.