<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Dear colleagues,</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">I wonder if somebody

has studied the <b>evolution</b> of NPs

encoding “inalienable possession” in the world’s languages.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">The

question is related to my inquiry into the history of the Assyrian language, a

now extinct East Semitic variety.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">The

Old Assyrian languge (roughly, 19 century BC) had a <b>synthetic</b> NP

construction with kinship terms and body parts as heads (“inalienable

possession”): a<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">χ<span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">u<span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> N “N’s brother”.

</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">The

<b>analytical</b> construction was used with most other heads, here the

dependent substantive is governed by the preposition </span><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">ʃa: alpu ʃa </span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">N “the ox of N”. </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">My internal

reconstruction shows that the synthetic possessive NP with </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">“inalienable”</span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> <span lang="EN-GB">head is a retention, since once

an ancestor of Assyrian had no analytical construction at all, and no </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">preposition </span><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">ʃa</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Starting from this, I

would assume that in <b>Neo-Assyrian</b>

(roughly  the 8<sup>th</sup> century BC)  the analytical <i>ʃa</i>-construction was

going to oust completely the “inalienable” one: </span><i><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">a</span></i><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">χ</span></i><i><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">u</span></i><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </span><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">ʃa</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">

</span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">N

“the brother of N” ~  </span><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">alpu ʃa </span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">N “the ox of N”. </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">But

actually </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">“inalienable” heads,

rather than lose their specific syntactic feature,  developed a brand-new NP construction, with an

obligatorily anticipatory pronoun:  </span><i><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">a</span></i><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">χ</span></i><i><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">u-</span></i><b><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">ʃu</span></i></b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </span><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">ʃa</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">

</span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">N

lit. “brother-<b>his</b> of N” vs. </span><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">alpu ʃa </span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">N “the ox of N”.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Are you aware of

similar developments elsewhere?</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Best wishes,</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Sergey</span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></p></div>