poss-marking

[John Verhaar]

        In response to David Beck's query: 
        Indonesian (and some, perhaps many, other South-East Asian
languages) has possessive constructions by mere juxtaposition of
possessee-possessor, in that order: _rumah Ali_ (house Ali) 'Ali's home';
also with pronominal possessors, as in: _rumah {saya/kamu/...}_ (house {1 /
2 / ...) '{my / your} house'.
        Lately possessors have come to be marked, in this language, with
the preposition _dari_ 'from', 'of' (granted, that is not a bound form), or
even with an expanded form of that preposition, _daripada_, especially in
in promptu speech when the speaker is casting about for the possessor's
name: _rumah dari(pada) ......Ali_. Normativists reject this _dari(pada)_
as redundant and as characteristic of "talk-now-think-later" speech. There
are, however, indications that _dari_ marking of the possessor is beginning
to be subtly different from the juxtapositional alternant. 
        My hunch is that the juxtapositional type should be looked for in
right-branching attribute typology --- and thus not perhaps of the type
given as MANUEL FATHER. 
        Of course, juxtapositional organization of poss. constructions
would be normal in compounds, as in English _the Johnson home_, _the
Kennedy children_..
        
John Verhaar
johnverhaar at compuserve.com