Possessors in Brazilian Portuguese

[Daniel L. Everett]

Continuing on a bit with unusual structures involving possessors,
there are some unusual structures in Brazilian Portuguese like:

(1) Joao quebrou o brac,o.
    John  broke  the arm
   (i) John broke the arm (of the chair, etc. not his)
   (ii) John's arm was broken.

(2) O carro furou o pneu
    the car punctured the tire
   'The car's tire was punctured.'

Note that these are distinctly unlike the normal dative possessor
structures common in Romance. So, again from B. Portuguese:

(3) O vidro me cortou toda a cabec,a.
    the glass me cut all the head
    'The glass cut my head all over'


In (3) the possessed item remains in place, the possessor "ascends" (to 
use RG terms) to the dative position. In (1) and (2), however, the 
possessor ascends to subject position.

Does anyone know of another Romance language with this construction?


-- Dan Everett