poss-marking

Michael Noonan noonan at CSD.UWM.EDU
Tue Aug 17 20:52:43 UTC 1999


Lango has a grammatical difference between alienable and inalienable
possession.  With inalienable possession, the head and the attributive NP
are simply juxtaposed:
	wi   rwot
	head king
	'the king's head'
With alienable possession, an attributive particle is obligatory:
	wicc a    rwot
	head ATTR king
	'the king's (animal) head'

Lango is head-initial [right-branching], but there are also head-final
[left-branching] languages with no overt genitive marker.  Languages
belonging to, for example, the Kamarupan and Lolo-Burmese sub-families of
Tibeto-Burman are head-final, but often have zero-marked genitives, as in
Angami, for example:
	belho ki
	Belho house
	'Belho's house'

Mickey

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