If the original object is no longer expressed, it is not a valency-increasing operation[4]: 186–7 A language may have multiple applicatives, each corresponding to different roles.
These roles include instrumental, comitative, benefactive, locative, and (although rarely) genitive.
[6] Consider the following example, where the intransitive verb itak (“to speak”) initially has one argument slot that is fulfilled by the subject pronoun prefix ku= (“I”).
For example, from the intransitive verb ran can be made transitive, and the oblique noun giant the object: The applicative verb can be made passive, something which is not possible with ran: The German prefix be- is considered an applicative by some,[citation needed] but other analyses reject this view.
From andika 'to write', we get transitive a-li-andik-ahe-PST-write-INDbarualettera-li-andik-a baruahe-PST-write-IND letter'he wrote a letter'and ditransitive a-li-ni-andik-i-ahe-PST-me-write-APL-INDbarualettera-li-ni-andik-i-a baruahe-PST-me-write-APL-IND letter'he wrote me a letter', or 'he wrote a letter for me'Similarly, from soma 'to read', These are sometimes called 'prepositional' forms of the verb because they are translated into English using prepositions: cry for, pray for, eat with, enjoy (be happy about), arrive at, sing to, sell to, send to, open (the door) for, reckon with, see for (himself), die at.
Here, the applicative suffix -ta shows that the locative or instrumental oblique is now a direct object:[4]: 187 sa-duu3SG-blowrá-viimúINAN-intosa-duu rá-viimú3SG-blow INAN-into"He blows into it."
(valence = 3)These behave identically as other lexical ditransitives, such as give and send in this language.