Suffixaufnahme

Suffixaufnahme (, "suffix resumption"), also known as case stacking, is a linguistic phenomenon used in forming a genitive construction, whereby prototypically a genitive noun agrees with its head noun. The term Suffixaufnahme itself is literally translated as "taking up of suffixes", which can be interpreted as the identical case marking of different but referentially-related phrases, with the presumption that nominal phrases possess a flat or non-configurational syntax. Across syntactic theories, case is seen as a bundle of features, and case agreement as the identity of case features. It was first recognized in Old Georgian and some other Caucasian and ancient Middle Eastern languages as well as many Australian languages, and almost invariably coincides with agglutinativity.
We should note that the usage of case stacking is not limited to genitive constructions, although the genitive case is involved in the majority of occurrences across languages. Cross-linguistic variations in case stacking representation and functions can be found. In general, case-stacking describes the phenomenon whereby a single word may bear multiple cases reflecting its relation to a number of different syntactic elements. It is important in the development of theories of inflectional morphology and the establishment of the relation between morphology and syntax.
Examples of case-stacking.
Kayardild.
In Kayardild, the combination of adnominal cases (ablative and genitive) in possessor-like functions, and various relational and adverbial (e.g., spatial) cases is common. Case functions may be combined where ablative functions similar to a genitive adnominal case, and the instrumental case is applied to the entire NP, as seen in the following example :
From this example, all words of the relevant phrase share the case marking which is assigned to the phrase as a whole, namely, the instrumental case. This follows Evans’s (1995) total concord principle, which states that case inflections are distributed over all sub-constituents regardless of the level they are originated from (i.e., the head or its dependents).
A similar example can be illustrated:
In this example, every item is marked by the oblique case (OBL), which indicates the non–indicative mood. The object is marked with the modal ablative case (MABL) and the instrumental adjunct by the instrumental (INST), and the possessor phrase by an additional genitive (GEN) as well.
In addition, Kayardild also has a system of modal (i.e., aspect-mood) cases, which involves the use of the same case suffixes found in the adnominal and adverbial systems. Non-subject NPs are marked for a case category that is determined by the aspect-mood domain they are in. For example, if the verb has the past suffixal inflection, all non-subject nouns will then bear the modal ablative case (MABL).
The modal locative (MLOC) marks two constituents as being in the scope of the (unmarked) “instantiated” verb category, whereas the utilitive case (UTIL) expresses an expected use.
Case-stacking and concord
One of the functions of the modal cases proposed by Heath (2010) is that, such internal operation of case-stacking may mark the limits of the domain through the repetition of all nouns in the scopal domain of a clause-level inflectional category. The modal cases is used to define the boundaries of clauses.
Case-stacking is closely relevant to the concept of concord, which has also been studied in other case-stacking languages such as Lardil and Australian languages in general. The term "concord" is defined as ""the morphological realization, on multiple words dominated by a syntactic node n, of a morphosyntactic feature value associated with n"."
In this example, all three words are dominated by the matrix DP node, and all three bear a proprietive case (PROP). The words within the subordinate DP ["balarrinabawu dangkanabawu"] ('white man') are dominated by both the matrix and the subordinate node, so both bear the inflectional ablative case (ABL) and proprietive case (PROP). This clearly illustrates the relationship of concord, where the sub-constituents of a syntactic node (i.e., matrix DP, in this example) carry the associating morphosyntactic features.
Syntactic structure in Kayardild case-stacking
The height of the syntactic nodes where features and cases attach to within the tree can vary by the relative positions of their domains. When a word carries more than one feature, its relative syntactic height generally corresponds to the linear order of its morphological realization.
Lardil.
Lardil is an Australian language that allows case-stacking where nominals may surface with multiple case affixes. When new morphology is added to a nominal with a semantically uninterpretable case (e.g., accusative), the uninterpretable case is eliminated; however, when a semantically interpretable case is added (e.g., instrumental), the new morphology may be stacked outside the case morpheme. Richards (2013) argues that such uninterpretable cases are first assigned, then dropped.
From this example, the possessor of the direct object is marked with the genitive suffix "‐ngan" first, then with another suffix -"i" to indicate accusative. It is presumed that the genitive case is assigned by DP internal structures, i.e., the determiner itself; whereas the subsequent cases and features are assigned by higher heads, i.e., the verb, in the above example. This example illustrates the two different sources for the cases involved in stacking, as the genitive case morpheme and the accusative case morpheme are c-commanded and assigned by different constituents.
The order of case is also important in Lardil. In the following example (a), the direct object, "wangalkuru" [boomerang‐FUT-ACC], bears future case determined by tense concord within its own clause, and then followed by a subsequent accusative suffix determined by case concord with the subject "maruni" [boy‐ACC]. These affixes are arranged in this order, and the opposite order of affixation would yield an unattested form in (b).
(a) Attested form
(b) Unattested form
It is suggested that the affixation order is determined by the order of their assignment. In (a), the future case is assigned by the T of the embedded control clause, and the accusative suffix by the case concord with the subject. This results in the order of 'FUT-ACC' in the stacking of cases.
Korean.
Korean is a language that exhibits the patterns of case stacking. In general, Korean prohibits a nominal from bearing both the nominative and the accusative case at the same time. However, the nominal can appear in either the dative case, the nominative case, or the accusative case, or in multiple cases where one stacked on top on the other. 
In this example, the nominative case morpheme -"ka" is optionally suffixed to the subject (i.e., "Chulsoo") in addition to the dative suffix -"eykey". The nature and assignment of -"ka" in the context of case-stacking is an ongoing debate. In addition, the acceptance of case-stacking in Korean speakers may vary upon context. Some speakers may need to consider case stacking in particular contexts in order to accept it (e.g., spoken context). However, judgment studies also show that Korean speakers judge double accusative ditransitives as unacceptable yet they are not completely avoided when completing sentences. In fact, case stacking is difficult for speakers to accept in most situations unless a particle such as "man" ‘only’ or "kkaci" ‘even’ intervenes between the dative and nominative case markers, such as the following example:
Although case-stacking has been used in various inflectional suffixes in other languages, in Korean, it is ungrammatical to stack the negator before a predicate. This is different from the restrictions on multiple occurrences of the negative prefixes in Korean, which states that a predicate can have only one of these prefixes, resulting in ungrammaticality in forms such as *"pul-pul"-A, *"pi-pi"-A, etc. However, the short-form negation "an(i)" can precede a negative prefix such as "pu(l)"-, "pi"-, and "mi"-, but not before another short-form negation of "an(i)" itself. This results in attested forms such "an(i) pul-kanungha"- ‘impossible’, and "an(i) pi-kwahakceki-" ‘unscientific’, as well as unattested forms like *"an(i) an(i) kanungha-", and *"an(i) an(i) kwahakceki-".
Sumerian.
In Sumerian, affixes are arranged in a specific order in the noun phrase, such that affixes may not necessarily directly attached to nouns. The phenomenon is known as double case marking or case displacement. 
In the above example, the genitive NP ["kalam"] ("homeland") has been assigned multiple markers in reference to the head noun "sons", namely, the genitive marker -"ak", the plural -"ene", and the dative case -"ra". Sumerian nouns may be marked for case, therefore, possessive relationships (e.g., genitive), plurals, and case marking were expressed by suffixed morphemes that stacked onto one another within the noun phrase.
Old Georgian.
A subject, for instance, would be marked with a subjective affix as well as a genitive affix. So, for example, in Old Georgian "perx-ni k'ac-isa-ni" (foot- man--) 'a man's feet', the genitival noun phrase agrees in case (nominative) and number (plural) with the head noun. However, while such a possessive construction is most frequently found in suffixaufnahme, other nominal constructions may also show similar behavior. In Old Georgian, a postpositional phrase modifying a noun could take on that noun's case and number features: ""Ra turpa prinvelia!" c'amoidzaxa ert-ma bavshv-ta-gan-ma "[one-ERG child-GEN.PL-from-ERG] ("'What a wonderful bird!' exclaimed one of the children") has the ergative (also called narrative) case "-ma" on "ertma" repeated in the modifying postpositional phrase, headed by "-gan".
Kashimiri.
Case-stacking in Kashimiri mostly occurs to genitive construction. By adding the suffix -"hund" or -"sund" to the noun, they indicate the gender and number of their modifier. The genitive takes the case marker of the argument's function, such that the genitive is marked with the ablative case before a postposition.
In the above example, the suffixes -"en", -"hind", and -"is" are stacked onto each other after the stem [kor] ("girl") to indicate the respective genitive and ablative cases involved.
Significance and debates on case-stacking.
Theoretical issues in morphology and syntax.
Regarding the phenomenon of Suffixaufnahme, Frans Plank (1995) has proposed several theoretical issues in morphology and syntax in his influential work as following:
The nature of case marking.
Case for Korean case-stacking
One of the studied phenomena is when the “nominative” particle -"ka" can be optionally suffixed to the subject in addition to the dative particle -"eykey". However, there is an ongoing debate between the cases for and against case-stacking. Traditionally, it has been assumed that "ka" is a case morpheme independent of the inherent dative case and is used to license NPs in the structure. It is claimed that the case of the dative subject itself is inherently insufficient to license its appearance in subject position, therefore, it must receive an additional case in its structure (e.g., the nominative case "ka"). By this, the nominative case itself can also be overtly realized.
This view contradicts the claim that nominative/accusative cases behave genuinely as case-markers. Instead, it suggests that case alternations and grammatical subjecthood do not require nominals to exhibit nominative stacking. However, nominative stacked nominals behave similarly like major subjects, where nominative stacking reflect their status as non-nominative major subjects.
Case against Korean case-stacking
Against the traditional approach, one of the hypotheses is made by Carson Schütze (2001) states that: “"Despite the initial plausibility, stacked case particles are not genuine case-markers. Even unstacked Nominative and Accusative case-markers are ambiguous between marking case and discourse functions like Topic and Focus".” It is proposed that the stacked "ka" is not a reflection of case. Instead, it should be treated as a focus particle rather than a case morpheme. Moreover, NP subjects do not require additional morphological nominative case features to be licensed. In fact, the NP that is lexically marked as dative by its predicate is not even eligible for an additional structural case (e.g., nominative or accusative).
The evidence against traditional claims proposed by Schütze are as followed:
Evidence of "ka" as a focus marker
Competing models in case assignment.
One of more common models in case assignment is the Agree model, which states that structural case features are assigned to nominals by functional heads. Given a head that can assign case and a nominal that is c-commanded by the head, the case-marking associated with the head will be assigned to the nominal. Another competing model is the Dependent model, which proposes that the case that a nominal receives is dependent on the presence of other nominals in a local domain. In an ergative language (i.e., downwards), the c-commanding nominal receives dependent case; in an accusative language (i.e., upwards), the c-commanded nominal receives the dependent case. Every nominal that is not assigned a dependent case will then bear an unmarked case (i.e., 'nominative' or 'absolutive'). However, within the nominal domain, the unmarked case is represented as the 'genitive' case. In this model, the role of individual functional heads is less direct.
The Dependent model may be applied to Korean case-stacking. The direct object is c-commanded by the subject within vP phrase.
In this example, neither the direct object "John" nor the subject "Mary" receives lexical case. The direct object "John" receives the dependent accusative case. However, the subject "Mary" receives an unmarked nominative case since it is not assigned a dependent case and its structural position does not satisfy the requirements on the realization of either the lexical or dependent case.