The Semantic Roles of Dative Case in Avestan Language

In inflected languages, case labels of distinct genders, being different and representing case and number, can never cover the full range of semantic and other properties of case. The labels primarily act as markers showing important synthetic and semantic properties. They do not have a proven capacity to describe the whole dimensions of the case and its functions. In the area of the case, therefore, labels at least are commonly seen at three levels, namely semantic functions, morphological case, and grammatical relations. Avestan language of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian as an inflected language includes eight grammatic cases by various semantic roles. In the paper, semantic roles of the dative case, one of grammatical cases (or main cases), are studied, consisting of ten roles: recipient, beneficiary, purpose, destination, location, manner, extent, accompany, agent, and attitude. It showed that added grammatical cases can exhibit similar semantic roles of dative case.