Neutr: Case alignment is neutral: the functions S, A, and P are not marked morphologically.
AAff: The function A is marked with affixation.
NoAMark:The function A is not explicitly marked, while S, P, or both are marked. A is therefore marked with a zero (∅) morpheme.
‘The dog is looking for the reindeer.’ (S. D.)
dog run_around.prs.3sg
‘The dog is running around.’ (S. D.)
dog that.acc look_for-prs.obj.3sg
‘The dog is looking for that.’ (S. D.)
child mother-3sg-lat eat-caus-prs.pass.3sg
‘The mother is feeding her child.’ (S. D.)
Regarding agent marking in Northern Mansi, active and passive sentences have to be distinguished. In active sentences, the A is marked by a zero morpheme (1), just like the S (2). Nouns do not have accusative suffixes, thus nominal P-s are unmarked (1), and hence their case distribution is neutral (Riese 2001). If the object is expressed by a pronoun, a suppletive form codes the accusative case, so the agent is marked by a zero suffix (3). In passive sentences, the agent takes the -n lative-dative ending (4), which morphologically distinguishes the agent and the patient functions (Riese 2001).