<div dir="ltr">In Yahgan (genetic isolate, Tierra del Fuego) alienable possession is usually done with a possessive pronoun (such as hau 'our') before the possessed NP, for example hau' vkvhr 'our house' (apostrophe to separate vowel-final and vowel-initial forms, v schwa, hr trilled voiceless variant of alveolar stops found in syllable-final position), whereas inalienable possession is via suffixes- with -nchi after the possessor, and -n (generally locative) after the possessed NP (for example Godnchi Makun 'the Son of God').<div><br></div><div>Jess Tauber</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, Jan 31, 2022 at 5:26 AM Martin Haspelmath <<a href="mailto:martin_haspelmath@eva.mpg.de">martin_haspelmath@eva.mpg.de</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div>
Haiman (1983; 1985) was the first to propose a highly general
explanation of alienability contrasts, but it appears that the
generalization is the following:<br>
<br>
If a language has different adpossessive constructions for
inalienable (i.e. kinship and/or body-part) nouns and alienable
(i.e. other) nouns and if the grammatical coding is asymmetric, the
coding is shorter for inalienable nouns.<br>
<br>
"Shorter coding" most often means lack of a marker with inalienable
nouns (as opposed to presence of a marker for alienable nouns), but
it can also mean that the marker is shorter, or that the
adpossessive person forms are shorter (as in the Hungarian contrast
between -a and ja, mentioned by Edith Moravcsik, or the Italian
contrast between mio and -mo, mentioned by Nigel Vincent). Haiman
attributed the difference to "iconic motivation", but
frequency-induced predictability ("economic motivation") is probably
a better explanation (<a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/zfs-2017-0009/html" target="_blank">Haspelmath
2017</a>). (There was a recent LSA talk by Lelia Glass that
confirmed the frequency asymmetries that I had observed:
<a href="https://twitter.com/lelia_glass/status/1479083599186075649" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/lelia_glass/status/1479083599186075649</a>)<br>
<br>
It seems that the generalization above, in terms of "coding length",
also covers the cases of phonological contrasts that we find (e.g.
the contrast noted for Ojibwe by Marie-Luise Popp: "In Ojibwe, vowel
hiatus is resolved via consonant epenthesis in alienable possession,
but via deletion in inalienable <br>
possession.")<br>
<br>
Martin<br>
<br>
<div>Am 31.01.22 um 08:41 schrieb
TasakuTsunoda:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div>
<p><span lang="EN-US">
2022/01/31<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">Dear Colleague,<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> The following work may
be relevant.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">Haiman, John. 1985. <i>Natural
syntax[:] Iconicity and erosion</i>. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">I don’t have an access to
this book now, but if I remember correctly, this book
discusses morphosyntactic differences between expressions of
alienable possession and those of inalienable possession. It
may discuss phonological differences as well.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">Best wishes,<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">Tasaku Tsunoda<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif" lang="EN-US"></span><span lang="EN-US">2022/01/28 20:10 </span><span style="font-family:"\00ff2d\00ff33 \00ff30\0030b4\0030b7\0030c3\0030af",sans-serif">に、</span><span lang="EN-US">"Lingtyp (Marie-Luise Popp </span><span style="font-family:"\00ff2d\00ff33 \00ff30\0030b4\0030b7\0030c3\0030af",sans-serif">の代理</span><span lang="EN-US">)"
<<a href="mailto:lingtyp-bounces@listserv.linguistlist.org" target="_blank">lingtyp-bounces@listserv.linguistlist.org</a>
(<a href="mailto:marie_luise.popp@uni-leipzig.de" target="_blank">marie_luise.popp@uni-leipzig.de</a> </span><span style="font-family:"\00ff2d\00ff33 \00ff30\0030b4\0030b7\0030c3\0030af",sans-serif">の代理</span><span lang="EN-US">)> </span><span>を書き込みました</span><span lang="EN-US">:<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> Dear all,<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> I'm looking for
languages, in which alienable and inalienable possession <u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> is marked by the
same set (or at least - phonologically similar) <u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> exponents, yet do
these exponents undergo different phonological <u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> processes in
alienable vs. inalienable possession.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> In Ojibwe, for
example, vowel hiatus is resolved via consonant <u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> epenthesis in
alienable possession, but via deletion in inalienable <u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> possession.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> If anyone knows
of more languages of this type, I would be grateful for <u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> references and
comments.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> Best,<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> Luise (Leipzig
University)<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> -- <u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">
_______________________________________________<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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list<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<pre cols="72">--
Martin Haspelmath
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6
D-04103 Leipzig
<a href="https://www.eva.mpg.de/linguistic-and-cultural-evolution/staff/martin-haspelmath/" target="_blank">https://www.eva.mpg.de/linguistic-and-cultural-evolution/staff/martin-haspelmath/</a></pre>
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