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Existential Constructions across Languages: Forms, meanings and functions
Edited by Laure Sarda and Ludovica Lena
[Human Cognitive Processing 76] 2023
► pp. 34–67

Chapter 2
Existential predication and have-possessive constructions in the languages of the world

ORCID logo | Université Lumière (Lyon 2)

The present article deals with the relationship between have-possessive constructions and inverse-locational predication, a type of construction commonly characterized as ‘existential’, illustrated by English There is a cat in the tree (contrasting with the plain-locational clause The cat is in the tree). Some of the languages that have a transitive ‘have’ verb use the same verb as an inverse-locational predicator. Two types of historical explanations can be considered: either the inverse-locational construction developed from the impersonalization of a pre-existing have-possessive construction, or the possessive construction initially belonged to the locational-possessive type, but has undergone changes making the coding of the possessor more similar to that of A in transitive clauses and/or the coding of the possessee more similar to that of P (have-drift).

Keywords: have-drift, ‘have’ verb, impersonalization, inverse-locational predication, plain-locational predication
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Have-possessive constructions
    • 2.1Have possessive constructions and other types of predicative possession
    • 2.2‘Have’ verbs as more or less atypical transitive verbs
    • 2.3Possible sources of have-possessive constructions
      • 2.3.1Transitivization of incorporated-possessee constructions
      • 2.3.2Transitivization of comitative-possessee constructions
      • 2.3.3Transitivization of locational-possessive constructions
    • 2.4Have-possessive constructions in the languages of the world
  • 3.Have-ILP constructions
    • 3.1Introductory remarks
    • 3.2Have-ILP constructions: Some illustrations
    • 3.3Have-ILP constructions in the languages of the world
  • 4.The creation of ILP constructions via impersonalization of have-possessive constructions
  • 5.The transitivization of oblique-possessor constructions
    • 5.1Introductory remarks
    • 5.2Development of P-like coding of the possessee in oblique-possessor constructions
    • 5.3Topicalization of the possessor and reanalysis of oblique-possessor constructions
  • 6.‘Have’ verbs also used as locational predicators in a GLP construction
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 5 July 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.76.02cre
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