On belonging
Preliminary thoughts on the typology of belong-constructions
This study aims at pinpointing certain properties of belong-constructions which might prove helpful for a future cross-linguistic inquiry into the grammar of those categories which associate with the notion belong in particular and with predicative possession in general. To this end, languages from two different regions – Mexico and Europe – are reviewed as to the evidence they provide of belong-constructions and their relation to other predicative-possessive categories. Cases of areal and genetic micro-variation in the domain of belong are discussed. The methodological issue of collecting data which are usually not featured in the descriptive-linguistic literature is raised as well.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Questions
- 2.1Background
- 2.2Ideas
- 2.3Plan of attack
- 3.Mexico
- 3.1Yucatec Maya
- 3.2Areal distribution
- 3.3Summary of the results of the Mexican case-study
- 4.Europe
- 4.1Germanic
- 4.2Romance
- 4.3Slavic
- 4.4Sundry Indo-European languages of Europe
- 4.5Summary of the results of the European case-study
- 5.Conclusions
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Acknowledgments
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Abbreviations
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Notes
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Appendix
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References