superessive case
{{Short description|Grammatical case}}
In grammar, the superessive case (abbreviated {{sc|supe}}) is a grammatical case indicating location on top of, or on the surface of something.{{cite web|last1=Mäkinen|first1=Panu|title=Finnish Grammar - Adverbial Cases|url=http://users.jyu.fi/~pamakine/kieli/suomi/sijat/sijatadverbien.html|website=users.jyu.fi|publisher=University of Jyväskylä|accessdate=6 March 2015}} Its name comes from Latin {{lang|la|supersum, superesse}}: to be over and above. While most languages communicate this concept through the use of adpositions, there are some, such as Hungarian, which make use of cases for this grammatical structure.
An example in Hungarian: {{lang|hu|a könyveken}} means "on the books", literally "the books-on".
In Finnish, superessive is a case in the adverbial cases category, that are productive only with a limited set of stems. The superessive is marked with the {{lang|fi|-alla/-ällä}} ending. For example:
- {{lang|fi|kaikkialla}} means "everywhere" ({{lit}} "everything-at")
- {{lang|fi|täällä}} means "(at) here" (from {{lang|fi|tämä}} - "this", {{lit}} "at this place")
- {{lang|fi|muualla}} means "(at) somewhere else" (from {{lang|fi|muu}} - "other", {{lit}} "other-at")
In Lezgian, the superessive case is marked with suffixes: {{lang|lez|sew-re-l}} 'on the bear'. p. 74. Haspelmath, Martin. 1993. A Grammar of Lezgian. Walter de Gruyter.