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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 | Tomsk State University
| Eurasian National University

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
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Structure of superlative constructions
    • 2.1Components of comparative constructions
    • 2.2Turkic comparative constructions
    • 2.3Turkic prototypical superlative constructions
  • 3.Semantics of superlative constructions
    • 3.1The category of quality gradation
    • 3.2Concrete and abstract evaluation of quality gradation
    • 3.3Totality and feature evaluation of entities
    • 3.4Superlative constructions in typological research
  • 4.Structural and semantic types of Turkic non-canonical superlative constructions
    • 4.1Possessive superlative constructions in Kazakh
      • 4.1.1Construction n-(pl)-gen n-(pl)-pos
        • 4.1.1.1Pattern n-pl-gen n-pos
        • 4.1.1.2Pattern n-pl-gen n-pl-pos
        • 4.1.1.3Pattern n-gen n-pl-pos
        • 4.1.1.4Pattern n-gen n-pos
      • 4.1.2Construction adj-(pl)-gen adj-(pl)-pos
        • 4.1.2.1Pattern adj-pl-gen adj-pos
        • 4.1.2.2Pattern adj-pl-gen adj-pl-pos
        • 4.1.2.3Pattern adj-gen adj-pos
        • 4.1.2.4Pattern adj-gen adj-pl-pos
      • 4.1.3Construction n-(pl)-gen adj-(pl)-pos
        • 4.1.3.1Pattern n-pl-gen adj-pos
        • 4.1.3.2Pattern n-gen adj-pos
        • 4.1.3.3Pattern n-pl-gen adj-pl-pos
        • 4.1.3.4Pattern n-gen adj-pl-pos
    • 4.2Syntactic functions of the superlative possessive constructions
    • 4.3Some preliminary conclusions to this paragraph
  • 5.Turkic comparative data
    • 5.1Turkish non-canonical superlative constructions
    • 5.2South Siberian Turkic non-canonical superlative constructions
    • 5.3Preliminary summary of comparative results
  • 6.Non-canonical (possessive) superlative constructions in English
    • 6.1Constructions of the type king of kings in English
    • 6.2Constructions of the type mother of (all) battles in English
    • 6.3Constructions of the type time of one’s life in English
  • 7.Some conclusions and discussion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Abbreviations and symbols in glossing
  • Note
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 5 March 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.206.11nev
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