The applicative voice is a grammatical voice which promotes an oblique argument of a verb to the (core) patient argument, and indicates the oblique role within the meaning of the verb. When the applicative voice is applied to a verb, its valency may be increased by one, and intransitive verbs may be converted to transitive verbs. For example, in Yagua "He blows into it" may be expressed as saduu ráviimú, where saduu is "blow" with a third person subject, and ráviimú is an oblique meaning "into an inanimate object." Expressed with an applicative it is saduutára, where ta is a locative applicative and the locative oblique is no longer present. The verb indicates both the agent as before and adds a patient/object through ra; the verb is thus now a transitive one. Applicative constructions are found in various languages, particularly in highly agglutinative languages, such as Bella Coola (Nuxálk), Ubykh, Ainu and Bemba. In grammar, the voice of a verb describes the relationship between the action (or state) that the verb expresses and the participants identified by its arguments (subject, object, etc. ... An oblique case (Latin: ) in linguistics is a noun case of analytic languages that is used generally when a noun is the predicate of a sentence or a preposition. ... It has been suggested that Verbal agreement be merged into this article or section. ... In linguistics, a grammatical patient is an entity upon whom an action is carried out. ... In linguistics, valency or valence refers to the capacity of a verb to take a specific number and type of arguments (noun phrase positions). ... An intransitive verb is a verb that has only one argument, that is, a verb with valency equal to one. ... A transitive verb is a verb that requires both a subject and one or more objects. ... The Yagua language is spoken by the Yagua people, primarily in northeastern Peru. ... Locative is a case which indicates a location. ... It has been suggested that Agglutination be merged into this article or section. ... Nuxálk (also Bella Coola) is a Salishan language spoken in the Canadian town Bella Coola, British Columbia by approximately 20-30 elders. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... The Ainu language (Ainu: , aynu itak; Japanese: ainu-go) is spoken by the Ainu ethnic group on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaidō. It was once spoken in the Kurile Islands, the northern part of HonshÅ«, and the southern half of Sakhalin. ... Bemba, also known as Chibemba and Ichibemba, is a Bantu language that is spoken primarily in Zambia but is also spoken in surrounding countries. ...

A language may have multiple applicatives, each corresponding to such different roles as comitative, locative, instrumental, and benefactive. Sometimes various applicatives will be expressed by the same morpheme, such as in the Bantu language Chichewa, where the morpheme -ir- forms both instrumental and locative applicatives. Applicatives may also be the only way of expressing such roles, as in the Bantu language Kichaga, where instrumental, benefactive, malefactive, and locative are formed solely by applicatives. In other languages applicatives coexist with other methods of expressing said roles. In these languages applicatives are often used to bring a normally oblique argument into special focus, or as in Nez Percé, to keep humans as core arguments. The Comitative case is used where English would use in company with or together with. It, and many other cases, are found in the Finnish language, the Hungarian language, and the Estonian language. ... Locative is a case which indicates a location. ... In linguistics, the instrumental case (also called the eighth case) indicates that a noun is the instrument or means by which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action. ... The benefactive case is a case used where English would use for, for the benefit of, or intended for. ... Map showing the approximate distribution of Bantu vs. ... Chichewa is the official national language of the Republic of Malawi. ... Kichagga (kichaga) is one of the Bantu languages spoken by the people of Tanzania, South of Mount Kilimanjaro. ... Nez Perce (also spelled Nez Percé; pronounced as in French, or ) is a Sahaptian language related to the several dialects of Sahaptin (note the spellings, -ian vs. ...

Applicatives have a degree of overlap with causatives, and in some languages the two are realised identically. While differing from true applicatives, a similar construction known as dative shifting occurs in other languages, including English. Dative shifting is a grammatical process by which an oblique argument of a verb, usually one functioning as a recipient or a benefactive (roles often expressed by datives), is placed in the same grammatical role as a patient, increasing the valency of the verb and forming a clause with two...

References

• Aronoff, Mark; Kirsten Fudeman (2005). What is Morphology?. Blackwell Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0-631-20319-2. 
• Mchombo, Sam (1998). "25: Chichewa", in Andrew Spencer and Arnold M. Zwicky: The Handbook of Morphology. Blackwell Publishers Ltd. ISBN 0-631-22694-X. 
• Mithun, Marianne (2001). The Languages of Native North America. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7. 
• Payne, Thomas (1997). Describing Morphosyntax: A Guide for Field Linguists. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-58805-7.