21_Pronominal Possessor Noun
| Definition |
|---|
| The property Pronominal Possessor Noun has the value "yes" when at least one pronominal possessor can precede the noun it modifies in a neutral context. Good contexts to set this property are given below. In these contexts, the noun phrase is definite or has been previously mentioned. Furthermore, possession is restricted to alienable possession where there is no contrastive focus on the possessor. These contexts should be tested with possessors of all person, number and gender values. What are you painting? My house. What is Bill reading? His book. The term pronominal is used in the broadest sense and includes what linguists or grammars might call clitics, weak pronouns, strong pronouns, pronominal agreement markers [add link], affixes, or adjectival possessors. What matters is whether the pronominal possessor precedes the possessed noun, not if the pronominal possessor forms a tight unit with the noun or is written as a single word with the noun. General Note on Word Order Properties: A "yes" value for Pronominal Possessor Noun does not exclude a "yes" value for Noun Pronominal Possessor. NA (Not Applicable): Since all known languages have pronominal possessors and nouns, this property is always defined. Examples: 1. Japanese is “yes” for this property, as pronominal possessors precede the noun: watasi-no ie 1sg- GEN house My house watasi.tachi-no ie I. PL- GEN house ‘Our house’ kare.ra- no ie he. PL- GEN house ‘Their house’ 2. Wolof is “yes” for this property, as all personal pronominal possessors precede the noun in a neutral context, except for 3rd person singular pronouns. Sa-ma kër 1SG house 'my house' Sama y/i kër 1SG PL house 'my houses' 3. French is “yes” for this property, as pronominal possessors precede the noun in a neutral context. sa maison / son livre 3SG.FEM house / 3SG MASC book ‘his/her house/ his/her book’ Leur maison Their house ‘Their house’ Comment: the possessor agrees with the gender and number of the possessed noun. 4. Hindi is “yes” for this property, as pronominal possessors precede the noun: me- rī kitāb 1SG -1SG.POSS. FEM book.FEM ‘my book’ us kī kitāb 3OBL POSS.FEM book.FEM ‘his/her book’ Comment: -rī is first/second person possessor and SG.FEM possessed noun; -rā is first/second person possessor and SG.MASC possessed noun; -re (long e) is first/second person possessor and PL.MASC possessed noun; -kī is 3rd person possessor or noun phrase and SG.MASC possessed noun. -ke (long e) is 3rd person possessor or noun phrase and PL.MASC possessed noun. 5. Malagasy is “no” for this property, as no pronominal possessor can precede the noun: *(ny) ko trano DET 1SG house |
| Contributed by: Hilda Koopman |
| Language | Value | Contributor | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| =Hoan | Yes | Chris Collins | |
| Abaza | Yes | Brian O'Herin | |
| Acehnese | No | Julie Legate | |
| + Afrikaans | Yes | Theresa Biberauer | |
| + Agni indénié | Yes | Amoikon Dyhié ASSANVO | |
| + Albanian | No | Dalina Kallulli | this pattern is only productive with relational, human nouns |
| American Sign Language | Yes | Natasha Abner | POSS-1 BOOK ("my book") |
| + Amharic | Yes | Girma Demeke | |
| + Ancient Greek | Yes | Richard Faure | |
| Arabic, Gulf | No | Dimitrios Ntelitheos | |
| Bajau, West Coast | No | Mark Miller | |
| Bambara | Yes | Hilda Koopman | |
| Bardi | Yes | Claire Bowern | |
| Basaa | No | Paul Roger Bassong | |
| Bellinzonese | Yes | Andrea Cattaneo | |
| Beng | Yes | Denis Paperno | |
| + Bengali | Yes | Priyanka Biswas | |
| Bole | No | Alhaji Gimba | |
| Brazilian Portuguese | Yes | Bruna Moreira | |
| + Bulgarian | Yes | Ljuba Veselinova | |
| Burmese | Yes | Timothy Ho | |
| Calabrian (Northern) | No | Giuseppina Silvestri | |
| + Catalan | Yes | Victoria Mateu | |
| Chichewa | No | Sam Mchombo | |
| Chickasaw | Yes | Pam Munro | The pronominal possessor is a prefix. |
| Chol | No | Jessica Coon | |
| + Czech | Yes | Peter Kosta | |
| Dagaare | Yes | Adams Bodomo | |
| Dholuo | No | Hilda Koopman | |
| Digo | No | Steve Nicolle | |
| + Digor Ossetic | Yes | David Erschler | |
| + Dutch | Yes | Lotte Hendriks | |
| Eastern Armenian | Yes | Karine Megerdoomian | |
| Egyptian Arabic | No | Arwa Rangwala | |
| English | Yes | Chris Collins | |
| English (Singapore) | Yes | Adam Chong | |
| Estonian | Yes | Mark Norris | |
| Ewe | Yes | Chris Collins | |
| + Farefari | Yes | Mary Esther Kropp Dakubu | |
| Faroese | Yes | Hjalmar Páll Petersen | In spoken FA the word order is Pronominal Poss + Noun; kinship terms have the word order Noun + Pronominal Possessor (pápi mín father-mine') |
| + Finnish | Yes | Anders Holmberg | |
| + French | Yes | Vincent Homer | The pronominal agrees with the possessed noun in gender and number. |
| Frisian (West Frisian) | Yes | Jarich Hoekstra | |
| + Ga | Yes | Mary Esther Kropp Dakubu | |
| galician | Yes | Naír García | |
| Garifuna | Yes | Pam Munro | |
| georgian | Yes | Lea Nash | |
| German | Yes | Viola Schmitt | |
| Greek | No | Arhonto Terzi | |
| Gungbe (Porto-Novo) | No | Enoch Oladé Aboh | |
| Gurene | Yes | Samuel Atintono | |
| Haitian | No | Michel DeGraff | |
| Hakka | Yes | Iris Wu | |
| Hausa | No | Russell Schuh | |
| Hebrew | No | asaf bachrach | |
| + Hindi | Yes | Anoop Mahajan | |
| Hittite | Yes | Mattyas Huggard | |
| + Hixkaryana | Yes | Laura Kalin | |
| + Hungarian | Yes | Anna Szabolcsi | |
| Ibibio | No | Willie Willie | |
| + Icelandic | No | Jim Wood | According to Thráinsson (2007:90) ("The Syntax of Icelandic" CUP), this order is only possible with contrastive focus. |
| Iha | Yes | Mark Donohue | |
| imbabura quichua | Yes | UCLA Linguistics 210 | |
| Indonesian | No | Mark Donohue | |
| Iron Ossetic | Yes | David Erschler | |
| Isbukun Bunun | Yes | Iris Wu | |
| + Italian | Yes | Adriana Belletti | |
| Jamaican Creole English | No | Stephanie Durrleman | |
| Japanese | Yes | Ken Hiraiwa | |
| Jarawara | Yes | Alan Vogel | Dixon 2004:295ff, 310ff |
| Khasi | No | Gracious Temsen | |
| + KiLega | Yes | Kasangati Kinyalolo | |
| Kiswahili | No | Aggrey Wasike | |
| Kiyaka | No | Lukowa Kidima | |
| + Korean | Yes | Chung-hye Han | |
| Kuot | Yes | Eva Lindström | rare but universally accepted |
| Kurdish (Sorani) | No | Yadgar Karimi | |
| Kusunda | Yes | Mark Donohue | |
| Laal | No | Florian Lionnet | |
| Lango | No | Arwa Rangwala | |
| Lao | No | Alif Silpachai | |
| Lebanese Arabic | No | Lina Choueiri | |
| Lubukusu | No | Aggrey Wasike | |
| Maasai (Kisongo) | No | Hilda Koopman | |
| Malagasy | No | Hilda Koopman | |
| Malayalam | Yes | Mythili Menon | |
| + Mandarin | Yes | Timothy Ho | |
| + Maori | Yes | Ray Harlow | |
| + Marshallese | No | Heather Willson Sturman | It is unclear whether the pronominal attached to the possessive classifier is a clitic, affix or agreement marker. |
| + Middle Dutch | Yes | Gertjan Postma | |
| Miya | No | Michael A. Estrada | Property values and examples are drawn from Schuh, Russell G. 1988. A Grammar of Miya. University of California Press, vol 130, Berkeley, and were verified for accuracy by Schuh. |
| N|u | Yes | Chris Collins | |
| + Nahuatl (Central Huasteca) | Yes | John Garcia | |
| Nahuatl (Classical) | Yes | John Garcia | |
| + Nawdm | Yes | Hannah Kim | |
| Nepali | Yes | Mark Donohue | |
| Nez Perce | Yes | Amy Rose Deal | |
| Northern Thai | No | Alif Silpachai | |
| Norwegian | Yes | Marit Julien | |
| Nupe | No | Jason Kandybowicz | |
| Nweh | No | Hilda Koopman | |
| Okinawan | Yes | Ken Hiraiwa | |
| + Old English | Yes | Willem Koopman | |
| One | Yes | Mark Donohue | |
| + panjabi | Yes | Gurprit Bains | |
| Papuan Malay | Yes | Mark Donohue | |
| Pashto | Yes | Taylor Roberts | |
| Pima | Yes | Marcus Smith | |
| + Polish | Yes | Barbara Tomaszewicz | |
| Q'anjob'al | Yes | Kathleen O'Flynn | |
| Russian | Yes | Denis Paperno | |
| Salasaca Quichua | Yes | Pieter Muysken | |
| + Samoan | Yes | Vincent Homer | The possessive pre-nominal pronominal is formed by using the article (e.g. "le", "se"), the possessive marker "a" (alienable possession) or "o" (inalienable possession) and a personal pronoun (in that order). In contrast to what happens with a singular definite possessor, the possessive morpheme ("a"/"o") is not necessary with dual or plural possessors.) |
| San Dionisio Ocotepec Zapotec | No | George Aaron Broadwell | |
| Sandawe | Yes | Helen Eaton | |
| Scottish Gaelic | Yes | David Adger | |
| Senaya | No | Laura McPherson | |
| Shupamem | No | Abdoulaye Laziz Nchare | |
| Skou | Yes | Mark Donohue | |
| Slovenian | Yes | Franc Marušič | |
| + Spanish | Yes | Michael A. Estrada | |
| + Swedish | Yes | fredrik heinat | |
| Swiss German | Yes | Cecile Meier | |
| + Tagalog | Yes | Edith Aldridge | |
| Taiwanese Southern Min | Yes | Arthur Wang | |
| Thai | No | Peter Jenks | |
| Titan | No | Claire Bowern | |
| Tiwa | Yes | Virginia Dawson | |
| Tommo-So | No | Laura McPherson | |
| + Tongan | Yes | Hilda Koopman | |
| Triqui, Copala | No | George Aaron Broadwell | |
| Tukang Besi | No | Mark Donohue | |
| + Tuki (Tukombo) | No | Edmond Biloa | This ordering is only possible with contrastive focus. |
| + Turkish | Yes | Volkan Tümer | |
| Tuvan | Yes | Mark Donohue | |
| Twi | Yes | Cansada Martin | |
| Udmurt | Yes | Orsolya Tanczos | |
| + Ukrainian | Yes | Roksolana Mykhaylyk | |
| Vata | Yes | Hilda Koopman | |
| Wan | Yes | Tatiana Nikitina | |
| Welsh | Yes | David Willis | |
| + West Flemish | Yes | Liliane Haegeman | |
| Western Armenian | Yes | Hrayr Khanjian | |
| + Wolof | Yes | Hilda Koopman | |
| Yan-nhaŋu | Yes | Claire Bowern | |
| Yawa | Yes | Mark Donohue | |
| Yoruba | No | Johnson Folorunso Ilori | |
| Zulu | No | Claire Halpert |