External Possession

РЕЗИМЕ: Во овој труд се разгледуваат присвојните конструкции на ниво на именската синтагма што изразуваат прототипни присвојни релации (внатрешна присвојност) во конкуренција со присвојните конструкции на ниво на реченицата (надворешна присвојност). Прототипните присвојни значења се дефинираат како релации меѓу поседувачот - човек и објектите од неговиот ‘персонален домен’ (објекти на поседување, делови на телото, луѓе во блиски односи). Обично јазиците имаат повеќе од една јазична стратегија за изразување на вакви релации, што е случај и во македонскиот јазик. Секоја од овие стратегии ја прикажува релацијата од различен аспект. Целта на оваа студија е да ги прикаже структурно-функционалните особини на основните конструкции, користејќи ги теориските претпоставки на когнитивната граматика и некои сродни функционални лингвистички приоди. Истражувањето се базира на голем корпус на примери од литературни и новинарски текстови, и преку нив се испитуваат дискурсно-прагматските и стилските фактори што ја раководат нивната дистрибуција. Со анализата се појаснуваат нијансите што секоја од испитуваните конструкции ги внесува во значењето на исказот.


EXPRESSING POSSESSION ON THE NOUN PHRASE LEVEL
IN MACEDONIAN AND IN ENGLISH

ABSTRACT: In this work possession is analysed as a complex cognitive category. The prototype possessive meanings are defined as relations between the human possessor and the objects of his/her ‘personal domain’ (objects owned by the person, body parts and people in close relation). Typically, languages employ more than one technique on the noun phrase level for expressing such meaning, Macedonian and English being no exception. Each of these constructions presents the relationship from a different perspective. Furthermore, some of them are also used for coding peripheral possessive functions, which describe abstract structural meanings located in the textual situation, i.e. relations between the nominalized predicate and its participants. This creates conditions for further extension of these constructions to meanings considerably distanced from the prototypical ones, such as specification and predicative noun modification, whose basic purpose is to elaborate the language expression.
It has been shown that the ‘reference point’ model proposed by Langacker is an adequate explanatory mechanism for the unity of the category. As illustrated, it plays a crucial role at each phase, determining the possible candidates for participants in the relation (possessor and possessum), thus preserving the relevant asymmetry.

This thesis is an examination of a number of related morphosyntactic constructions in Wubuy (formerly named ‘Nunggubuyu’ by Heath (1984)), a polysynthetic Gunwinyguan language from south-east Arnhem Land. In particular, focus is placed on possessive constructions and how these interact with other areas of the morpho-syntax, such as verbal agreement and noun incorporation. Additionally, this thesis separates Wubuy possessive constructions from possessive interpretations of benefactive applicatives. In Wubuy, possession behaves in a way that is reminiscent of ‘external possession’, or ‘possessor raising’, constructions (B. Baker, et al. 2010; M. Baker 1996; Payne and Barshi 1999a). However, empirical data demonstrates that current typologies and formal analyses of EP and NI cannot adequately account for all of Wubuy’s possessive mechanisms. This thesis will outline why these accounts are unsatisfactory, and it will suggest a new classification of Wubuy’s possessive constructions that is more successful in capturing the intrinsic grammatical and semantic contrast between different types of possession. A possible avenue for the development of a new approach to Wubuy possessive constructions within the framework of Lexical Functional Grammar (Lødrup 2009; Nordlinger and Sadler 2008; Schrock 2007) will also be proposed. Data is taken from a variety of sources, including my own fieldwork with speakers.

In questa relazione si è analizzato il costrutto del possesso esterno nella lingua spagnola e, in particolare, si è discussa la proposta analitica avanzata da Conti (2011). Secondo l’autrice il fenomeno non sarebbe da ricondurre né a una particolare spiegazione strutturalista generativista né al concetto di affectedness (Haspelmath, 1999); nel caso dello spagnolo ipotizza , invece, che il costrutto di possesso esterno emerga in relazione a un fattore dipendente più dalla dimensione pragmatico-discorsiva della lingua: dalla maggiore salienza (ossia topicalità) del possessore rispetto al posseduto deriverebbe la scelta del parlante di codificare esternamente il primo, utilizzando il dativo possessivo.
L'analisi di questa relazione è stata condotta utilizzando un piccolo corpus linguistico costruito attraverso un test di misurazione della salienza discorsiva dei costituenti di frase; per la realizzazione degli stimuli linguistici e visivi si è adottato come modello il lavoro di Prat-Sala & Branigan (2000).

La relazione è stata realizzata per il corso di Teoria e storia della grammatica (Prof. Mario Squartini), erogato dal corso di Laurea Magistrale in Scienze Linguistiche (a.a. 2017/18).

We try to show that genitive possessors in Bashkir, despite identity in form, may show properties associated with internal or external possessors depending on their ontological and pragamtic properties (humanness, topicality, affectedness, etc.). This raises the question of the nature of constituency as such.

El objetivo del presente estudio es completar los estudios previos sobre construcciones posesivas en yaqui con datos de corpus y ofrecer una descripción de construcciones posesivas a partir de la naturaleza del elemento poseído. Para ello, se exploran las correlaciones (y restricciones) entre el tipo de construcción (posesión interna, posesión verbal, posesión externa) y la relación posesiva (términos de parentesco, partes del cuerpo, parte-todo, parte-locativo, tipo-clase, asociación, pertenencia).

External Possession in a European Areal Perspective Martin Haspelmath Max-Planck-Institut für Evolutionäre Anthropologie, Leipzig 1. Introduction In an external-possession construction, a possessive modifier does not occur as a dependent constituent of the ...

Холодилова М. А. Конструкция с периферийным обладаемым в калмыцком языке // Сай С. С., Баранова В. В., Сердобольская Н. В. (ред.). Исследования по грамматике калмыцкого языка [Acta Linguistica Petropolitana. Труды Института лингвистических исследований РАН V, 2]. СПб: Наука, 2009. С. 76–93.

In this paper we examine the interaction of a number of grammatical phenomena in Wubuy, a polysynthetic language from northern Australia, and show how they can be given a comprehensive analysis within the framework of LFG. While each of these phenomena–noun incorporation, verbal agreement, coordination and external possession–has received various treatments within the LFG literature, no one study has addressed the compatibility of these analyses under interaction, despite the fact that they frequently co-occur in the ...

In the typological literature dedicated to external possession constructions (EPCs) (Payne & Barshi, 1999), four types of constructions are presented: the dative constructions or possessor raising, the noun incorporation, the applicative and the “double subjects” constructions. These strategies differ in the way they syntactically encode the possessor and the possessed. For example, in the applicative strategy, the possessed is encoded as the subject and the possessor as the object. However, some recent research in Wolof (Voisin-Nouguier, 2002), an Atlantic language of Senegal, shows that a fifth strategy of external possession should be recognized. This type of EPC entails a verbal derivational marker and implies a valency changing operation by encoding the possessor as the subject and the possessed as the object. It has been labeled the possession voice (Voisin-Nouguier, 2010). Interestingly, in Sereer, a related language of Wolof, a nearly identical strategy occurs. While pointing out the similarities and differences with the possession voice of Wolof, I will describe the syntactic and semantic mechanisms and the productivity of this peculiar voice in Sereer from data collected during fieldwork.

The Gumuz suffix/-(á)ts(a)/ on verbs and the related nominal prefix /tsá-/ can be internally reconstructed as the morpheme *tsa ‘body’ (Ahland 2010:165-66, 2012:251 ).  On verbs, the suffix functions as a verbal classifier, a reflexive, and a marker of certain types of complements, most notably perception-cognition-utterance (PCU) complements.  On nouns, it functions as a class morpheme prefix (Ahland 2012). The verbal suffix /-(á)ts(a)/ occupies the same position on the verb as incorporated nouns yet there exists no known free noun form in any variety of Gumuz. In addition to internal evidence, comparative evidence from the Koman languages suggests a cognate free noun form meaning ‘body’ as the lexical source. 

As noted by Schladt (2000:104), lexical sources for reflexive markers are usually nouns, most commonly body part terms.  These lexical sources are typically transparent in African languages and generally represent a direct object before grammaticalizing.  In addition to reflexives, verbal classifiers also begin their lives as nouns (often body part terms) which may also originally function as direct objects (Mithun 1984).  Both reflexive and verbal classifier constructions maintain a Patient but, with reflexive constructions, the Patient is always the same referent as the subject.  The term ‘body’ in Gumuz participates in both reflexive and verbal classifier constructions (with overlap in category, as verbal classifiers can classify both S and O arguments) - but seemingly only as part of reflexive constructions in the Koman languages. In Gumuz, the verbal classifier, /-(á)ts(a)/ ‘body’ has further grammaticalized as a valence increaser that can add clausal complements.

References
Ahland, Colleen. 2010. Noun incorporation and predicate classifiers in Gumuz. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 31.159-203.
Ahland, Colleen. 2012. A grammar of Northern and Southern Gumuz. PhD dissertation, University of Oregon.
Mithun, Marianne.1984. The evolution of noun incorporation. Language 60.847-94.
Schladt, Mathias. 2000.  The typology and grammaticalization of reflexives. Reflexives: forms and functions, ed. by Zygmunt Frayzingier, 103-124. Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Like in Classical Arabic and other modern Arabic dialects, the preposition l- marks the dative also in the Jewish Arabic dialect of Baghdad (JB). Under the scope of the syntactic category of dative, one finds different semantic roles like recipients, benefactives, possessors, experiencers, and others. Moreover, some datives operate on the pragmatic rather than the semantic level of the clause. This paper defines and exemplifies seven different dative roles in JB based on their interpretive properties and accounts for their distinctive syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic features.

Присвојноста претставува асиметрична релација меѓу два ентитета: поседувач (ПС) и поседувана единка (ПЕ). Овде ќе се задржиме на потесно сфатената, прототипна присвојност, која обично се ограничува на сопственост, делови на телото и роднински врски. Се фокусираме на изразување ‘надворешна присвојност’, кога двете единки во присвојната релација (ПС и ПЕ) се изразени во различни конституенти на една основна реченица. Целта е да се споредат типовите вакви конструкции во македонскиот јазик со нивните преводни еквиваленти во англискиот. Во македонскиот јазик често се користат неколку типови надворешно-присвојни конструкции, што не е случај во англискиот јазик, па поради тоа како преводни еквиваленти за овие конструкции најчесто се јавуваат именски присвојни конструкции. Тоа значи дека во преводите од англиски на македонски јазик треба да се изнаоѓаат македонски конструкции соодветни за дадениот контекст, а не буквално да се преведуваат англиските именски присвојни конструкции со именски корелати.

Extract from abstract: Possession is generally divided into two semantic types: inalienable and alienable. While inalienability signals “an indissoluble connection between two entities”, alienability encompasses “relationships of a less permanent and inherent type” (Chappell & McGregor 1995:4). For most Australian languages, the distinction between these semantic categories is reflected in the distribution of grammatical constructions that express possession. Alienable relationships are generally expressed with an Internal Possessor Construction (IPC) that codes the possessor as a modifier of the possessum, whereas inalienable relationships are commonly expressed with an External Possessor Construction (EPC) that treats the possessor as an argument of the clause (Dixon 2002:138; Meakins & Nordlinger 2014:205-206; Morphy 1983:122). However, Wubuy, (a.k.a. Nunggubuyu (Heath, 1984)), a polysynthetic head-marking language from South- East Arnhem Land, does not follow this typological tendency. This paper shows that it is within the domain of external possession that alienability affects the distribution of Wubuy possessive constructions, and when speakers wish to highlight the affectedness of an alienable possessor, they use the benefactive in a way that has not been identified by previous work on the language.