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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 moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/zfs-2017-0009/html">Haspelmath
2017</a>). (There was a recent LSA talk by Lelia Glass that
confirmed the frequency asymmetries that I had observed:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://twitter.com/lelia_glass/status/1479083599186075649">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 class="moz-cite-prefix">Am 31.01.22 um 08:41 schrieb
TasakuTsunoda:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:6F19DE1E-6591-4500-BDB7-C3AED7F304C5@nifty.com">
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<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US">
2022/01/31<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US">Dear Colleague,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US"> The following work may
be relevant.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US">Haiman, John. 1985. <i>Natural
syntax[:] Iconicity and erosion</i>. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" 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.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US">Best wishes,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US">Tasaku Tsunoda<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><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:"ＭＳ Ｐゴシック",sans-serif">に、</span><span
lang="EN-US">"Lingtyp (Marie-Luise Popp </span><span
style="font-family:"ＭＳ Ｐゴシック",sans-serif">の代理</span><span
lang="EN-US">)"
<<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:lingtyp-bounces@listserv.linguistlist.org">lingtyp-bounces@listserv.linguistlist.org</a>
(<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:marie_luise.popp@uni-leipzig.de">marie_luise.popp@uni-leipzig.de</a> </span><span
style="font-family:"ＭＳ Ｐゴシック",sans-serif">の代理</span><span
lang="EN-US">)> </span><span style="font-family:"ＭＳ
Ｐゴシック",sans-serif">を書き込みました</span><span lang="EN-US">:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span lang="EN-US"> Dear all,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span lang="EN-US"> I'm looking for
languages, in which alienable and inalienable possession <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span lang="EN-US"> is marked by the
same set (or at least - phonologically similar) <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span lang="EN-US"> exponents, yet do
these exponents undergo different phonological <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span lang="EN-US"> processes in
alienable vs. inalienable possession.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span lang="EN-US"> In Ojibwe, for
example, vowel hiatus is resolved via consonant <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span lang="EN-US"> epenthesis in
alienable possession, but via deletion in inalienable <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span lang="EN-US"> possession.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span lang="EN-US"> If anyone knows
of more languages of this type, I would be grateful for <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span lang="EN-US"> references and
comments.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span lang="EN-US"> Best,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span lang="EN-US"> Luise (Leipzig
University)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span lang="EN-US"> -- <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span lang="EN-US">
_______________________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span lang="EN-US"> Lingtyp mailing
list<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span lang="EN-US">
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:Lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org">Lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span lang="EN-US">
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp">http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">_______________________________________________
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<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Martin Haspelmath
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6
D-04103 Leipzig
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.eva.mpg.de/linguistic-and-cultural-evolution/staff/martin-haspelmath/">https://www.eva.mpg.de/linguistic-and-cultural-evolution/staff/martin-haspelmath/</a></pre>
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