Expressing ‘possession’
Motivations, meanings, and forms
Competing motivations are often at work in the choice of form and meaning of possessive and associative noun phrases. The article offers a broad typological review of the ways of expressing possession at the NP-internal level. In particular, it discusses how iconicity and economic motivations interact in determining the shape of NP-internal possessive expressions, also addressing the topics of how socio-cultural factors affect the grammar of possession and how societal changes are reflected in language variation.
Article outline
- 1.Possession, ownership, and association
- 2.Forms and meanings in possessive constructions: Iconic and economic motivation
- 2.1Iconic motivation in expressing possession: Some examples
- 2.2Iconic motivation and the specificity of a noun referent
- 2.3Economic motivation in possessive constructions
- 2.4The special status of speech act participants
- 2.5Non-possessive meanings in possessive constructions
- 3.How the expression of possession reflects societal practices
- 4.Summary
-
Acknowledgements
-
Abbreviations
-
Notes
-
References
References (41)
Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y.
2012 The Languages of the Amazon. Oxford: OUP.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y.
2013 Possession and ownership in cross-linguistic perspective. In
Aikhenvald &
Dixon (eds), 1–64.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y.
2015 Differential case in Yalaku.
Oceanic Linguistics 54: 241–270.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y. & Dixon, R. M. W.
(eds) 2013 Possession and Ownership: A Cross-linguistic Typology. Oxford: OUP.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ameka, Felix K.
1996 Body parts in Ewe grammar. In
The Grammar of Inalienability. A Typological Perspective on Body Part Terms and the Whole-part Relation,
Hilary Chappell &
William A. McGregor (eds), 783–840. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ameka, Felix K.
2013 Possessive constructions in Likpe (Skplé). In
Aikhenvald &
Dixon (eds), 224–242.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Boas, Franz & Deloria, Ella
1941 Dakota Grammar. Washington DC: US Govt. Print. Office.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Dench, Alan
2013 Possession in Martuthunira. In
Aikhenvald &
Dixon (eds), 26–48.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Dixon, R. M. W.
2005 A Semantic Approach to English Grammar, 2nd edn. Oxford: OUP.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Dixon, R. M. W.
2010 Basic Linguistic Theory, Volume (II):
Grammatical Topics. Oxford: OUP.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Enfield, Nicholas J.
2004 Ethnosyntax: Introduction. In
Ethnosyntax. Explorations in Grammar and Culture,
N J. Enfield (ed.), 3–30. Oxford: OUP.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ersen-Rasch, Margarete I.
2012 Türkische Grammatik. Ausführlich und verständlich. Lehrstufen A1 bis C2. Wiesbaden: Harrasowitz.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Gerland, Doris
2014 Definitely not possessed? Possessive suffixes with definiteness marking function. In
Frames and Concept Types. Applications in Language and Philosophy,
Thomas Gamerschlag,
Doris Gerland,
Rainer Osswald &
Wiebke Petersen (ed.), 269–292. Cham: Springer.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Gravelle, Gloria J.
2013 Possession in Moskona, an East Bird’s Head language. In
Aikhenvald &
Dixon (eds), 90–106.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Guérin, Valérie
2017 The Oceanic subgroup of the Austronesian language family. In
The Cambridge Handbook of Linguistic Typology,
Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald &
R. M. W. Dixon, 911–941. Cambridge: CUP.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Haiman, John
1983 Iconic and economic motivation.
Language 59: 781–819.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Heine, Bernd
1997 Possession. Cognitive Sources, Forces and Grammaticalization. Cambridge: CUP.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Heine, Bernd
2014 The body in language: Observations from grammaticalization. In
The Body in Language. Comparative Studies of Linguistic Embodiment,
Matthias Brenzinger &
Iwona Kraska-Szlenk (eds), 13–32. Leiden: Brill.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Jensen, Cheryl
1999 Tupí-Guaraní. In
The Amazonian Languages,
R. M. W. Dixon &
Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald (eds.), 125–164. Cambridge: CUP.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Jespersen, Otto
1924 The Philosophy of Grammar. London: George Allen and Unwin.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Johanson, Lars
2002 Structural Factors in Turkic Language Contacts. Richmond: Curzon.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lichtenberk, František
2008 A Grammar of Toqabaqita, Vol. 1. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Luo, Yongxian
2013 Possessive constructions in Mandarin Chinese. In
Aikhenvald &
Dixon (eds), 186–207.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lyons, John
1977 Semantics, Vol. 2. Cambridge: CUP.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Maslova, Elena
2003 A Grammar of Kolyma Yukaghir. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Michael, Lev
2013 Possession in Nanti. In
Aikhenvald &
Dixon (eds), 149–166.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Mosel, Ulrike
1984 Tolai Syntax and its Historical Development. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Nevskaya, Irina
2005 Prostranstvennye otnoshenia v tjurkskikh jazykakh Juzhnoj Sibiri (na materiale shorskogo jazyka). Novosibisrk: Rossijskaja Akademija Nauk (Sibirskoe otdelenie).
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Nevskaya, Irina
2008 Depictive secondary predicates in South Siberian Turkic. In
Secondary Predicates in Eastern European Languages and Beyond [
Studia Slavica Oldenburgensia 16],
Christoph Schroeder,
Gerd Hentschel &
Winfried Boeder (eds), 275–295. Oldenburg: BIS-Verlag der Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Nevskaya, Irina & Tazhibaeva, Saule
2017 Kazakh hypocorisms in a comparative perspective.
Turkic Languages 21: 234–348.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Pasch, Helma
1986 Die Mba-Sprachen. Die Nominalklassensysteme und die genetische Gliederung einer Gruppe von Ubangi Sprachen. Hamburg: Helmut Buske.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Rubin, Aaron D.
2010 The development of the Amharic definite article and an Indonesian parallel.
Journal of Semitic Studies LVII: 103–114.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Schlesinger, Michel
1928 Satzlehre der aramäischen Sprache des babylonischen Talmuds. Leipzig: Asia Major.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Schokkin, Dineke
2014 A Grammar of Paluai, the Language of Baluan Island, Papua New Guinea. PhD dissertation, James Cook University.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sneddon, James N.
1996 Indonesian Reference Grammar. Sydney: Allen and Unwin.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ullrich, Charles
2008 New Lakota Dictionary. Bloomington IN: Lakota Language Consortium.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
de Vries, Lourens
2006 Areal pragmatics of New Guinea: Thematization, distribution and recapitulative linkage in Papuan narratives.
Journal of Pragmatics 38: 811–826.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Waltisberg, Michael
2011 Syntactic typology of Semitic. In
Semitic Languages: An International Handbook,
Stefan Weninger (ed.), 303–329 Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Waltke, Bruce K. & O’Connor, Michael Patrick
1990 An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax. Winona Lake IN: Eisenbrauns.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cited by (2)
Cited by 2 other publications
Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y.
2021.
Removing the Owner: Non‐Specified Possessor Marking in Arawak Languages*.
Studia Linguistica 75:2
► pp. 175 ff.
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 26 june 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.