Chapter published in:
Possession in Languages of Europe and North and Central Asia
Edited by Lars Johanson, Lidia Federica Mazzitelli and Irina Nevskaya
[Studies in Language Companion Series 206] 2019
► pp. 205–238

Superlative readings of possessive constructions in Turkic

A comparative perspective

| Frankfurt University | Institute of Philology, Novosibirsk | Tomsk State University
| Eurasian National University, Astana
The article describes the superlative, hyperlative and elative use of formally possessive constructions in a number of Turkic languages from a comparative perspective, analyzing their structural and semantic types and pragmatic properties. Similar possessive superlative constructions are found all over Eurasia in languages belonging to various language families: they mostly express abstract (absolute) comparison of referred entities where their quantities are compared with a certain norm. One of the most unclear issues of possessive superlative constructions is their origin. They could have emerged as structural copies of corresponding Semitic Biblical expressions or as effect of language internal developments. The material of corresponding English and German non-canonical possessive constructions allows assuming that both factors have contributed to their emergence.
Keywords: Turkic languages, English, superlative use of possessive constructions, gradation of properties, superlative, hyperlative, elative
Published online: 05 March 2019
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.206.11nev
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