Possession/modification by simple juxtaposition

Wolfgang Schulze W.Schulze at LRZ.UNI-MUENCHEN.DE
Sat Nov 22 12:17:36 UTC 2008


Wouldn't it make sense to refer to Guaraní in order to illustrate 
P[ossess]um/P[ossess]or = Noun/Attribute strategies marked for 
juxtaposition? Taking the data from Maura Velazquez' article "Guarani 
possessive constructions" 
(http://crl.ucsd.edu/newsletter/3-6/Article1.html), the Guarani strategy 
can be illustrated as follows:

Por-Pum:

Maria mesa
Maria table
'Marias table'

Maria ajaka
Maria basket
'Maria's basket'

Noun-Attribute:

py'a rasy
stomach sick
'sick stomach' ~ 'stomach ache'

resa rovy
eye blue
'blue eye(s)'
 
As for Por/Pum, Velazquez writes: "When the PSR [= Por, W.S.] is a 
lexical  noun (...),  nominal  possession is regularly indicated by a 
simple juxtaposition of the two nominals  involved:  N1 (PSR)  N2  (PSM) 
[= Pum,, W.S.].  There is no special morpheme marking the PSR or the 
PSM.  The  designated  (i.e.,  profiled) element is the PSM."

Personally, I wonder whether the rigid pre-modifying strategy, namely 
Por-Pum / Attr-N is documented with juxtaposition at all. In WALS, David 
Gil mentions the "Västerbotten dialect of Swedish, in which alienable 
possessors and colour properties may both be expressed by means of a 
compound construction in which the modifier precedes the head":

Pelle-äpple
Pelle-apple
'Pelle's apple'

rö-äpple
red-apple
'red apple'

But do we have languages in which both juxtaposition and 
pre-modification occur as a general (!) pattern, or is the 
post-modifying Pum-Por - N-Attr correlation (with yuxtaposition) a more 
general option, competing with the heterogeneous Por-Pum / N-Attr 
strategy (again with yuxtaposition)? Summarizing some of the data given 
in this thread, we might state for yuxtaposition:

                 Attr-N                 N-Attr
Por-Pum     e.g. Swedish       e.g. Guaraní      
Pum-Por     e.g. Welsh          ? 

[Both Swedish and Welsh 'partial']

Best wishes,
Wolfgang



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*Prof. Dr. Wolfgang 
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