possessive non-marking

[David Beck]

Thanks to everbody for replying to my question about languages that mark
both possessors and possessee. Since everyone has been so helpful and has
so much information at their fingertips, let me turn the question around:

Are there any languages that mark neither possessor nor possessee in a
possessive construction? That is, does anybody say MANUEL FATHER to mean
Manuel's father? (And languages that case-mark one of the NPs don't count.)

I suppose a pattern like I FATHER 'my father' would be eligible, too, if
the pronoun isn't case-marked, though if the NP-NP structure is marked in
some way, mention that too.

This could get complicated, but it should be interesting.

David

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David Beck
Programme in Linguistics
University of Michigan
105 S. State St.
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109
USA
e-mail: (as of Sept. 7) dbeck at umich.edu
phone: (734) 978-4029