Hüsein's son

[Gideon Goldenberg]

>Dear Dr. Goldenberg,
>I just read your statement that there is no grammatically
>direct way to say "Hüsein's son" in Turkish.  Maybe I have
>misunderstood you, but what is the difference between
>Hüseyn'in oglu  and the pattern "of-John his-father"?
>Best regards
>Lars Johanson
>
>

Dear Prof. Johanson,
There is of course no structural difference at all:
Hüseyn'in ogl-u is actually "of-Husein his-son",
but the direct expression of the filial relation
here is in the form ogl-u = "son"+3rd sg.poss.suff.
("his-son"), which is independent and self-contained.
Here in fact lies the nuclear "Genetivverbindung" of
son and father in this case. The "exegetical apposition"
(genitive or absolute, as differentiatingly required)
specifies who (or elsewhere what) is behind the
pronominal referent in "his". Where this is clear from
the context or from the extra-linguistic situation,
you just say "his-son". The genitive noun is syntactically
not dependent on any nominal which follows (it contains,
or implies, its own head) and is commonly found in
predicative position and elsewhere. In other words,
a pronominal possessor is directly attached to its
head, whereas for a substantival possessor the periphrasis
of the type "of-Husein his-son", "of-John his-father" &c.
is required. This syntax differs from that of languages
where "son + gen.pron."his" is parallel to "son + gen.nom.
Peter's" are equally available. Cordial regards,  Gideon

==============================================
Gideon Goldenberg, Dept. of Linguistics,
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus
IL-91905 Jerusalem, Israel
Home Address: 48 Ben-Maimon Avenue,
IL-92261 Jerusalem, Israel
Tel.& Fax: +972-2-5665135
E-mail: <msgidgol at pluto.mscc.huji.ac.il>
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