[Lingtyp] Discourse functions of possessive markers

[Guillaume Jacques]

Dear Zahra,

It is maybe not what you are looking for, but in Japhug, the possessive
prefixes on the participle of an adjectival verb can be used to express a
superlative meaning, as in the following example.

[pɣa tʰamtɕɤt ɣɯ nɯ-kɯ-mpɕɤr] nɯ rmɤβja ɲɯ-ŋu.
bird all gen 3pl.poss-sbj:pcp-be.beautiful dem peacock sens-be
'The most beautiful of all birds is the peacock.'
(ex 82, p. 1451 of the Japhug grammar, A grammar of Japhug | Language
Science Press (langsci-press.org)
<https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/295>)

Although it can be viewed as a special type of possessive construction
(literally "The beautiful one of/among the birds"), I thought that was
nevertheless distinct enough from usual possessive constructions to be
interesting to your query, and perhaps relatable to the "emphatic" function
of possessive prefixes you mention.

I actually wonder if this is a crosslinguistically widespread way of
expressing superlative.

Guillaume


Le mar. 16 juil. 2024 à 14:53, Zahra Etebari Shekarsaraei via Lingtyp <
lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org> a écrit :

> Dear all,
>
>
>
> I am preparing a dataset for development of discourse functions in
> possessive/personal markers cross-linguistically. I am particularly
> interested in constructions (relevant examples below) where a
> possessive/personal marker is used not to convey possession or refer to
> another item, but to denote functions such as definiteness, topicality,
> emphasis or contrast.
>
>
>
> *Definiteness*
>
>    1. Kútip turǵan *adamı* kelmedi.
>                                       [Karakalpak]
>
> *The person* he/she has been waiting for did not come.
>
> (Utepovich 2023: 80)
>
>
>
> *Contrast*
>
>    2. Ulizy-vylizy                kyk
>    bratjos,           *pokći-ez*                                  [Udmurt]
>
>              lived-were.3SG        two
> brothers         *younger.brother-3SG*
>
>              kuaner,                      *byȝym-ez*
>                          uzyr.
>
>              Poor                           *older.brother-3SG*
> rich
>
>              There lived two brothers, the younger one was poor, the older
> one was rich.
>
>              (Serebrennikov 1963: 133)
>
>
>
> So far, I have collected cases from over 60 language varieties spanning Uralic
> (Ugric, Permic, Mari, Mordvin, Samoyed), Altaic (Turkic, Tungusic,
> Mongolic), Indo-European (Iranic), Afro-Asiatic (Semitic), and Austronesian
> (Javanese, Malay) families. If you have encountered similar uses in a
> language you work on or if you are aware of any lesser-known source on
> this topic, especially non-English sources, I would be extremely grateful
> if you could share them with me.
>
>
>
> Many thanks for your time!
>
>
>
>
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Zahra
>
>
>
>
>
> References:
>
>
>
> Serebrennikov, Boris A. 1963. *Istoriceskaja Morfologija Permskix Jazykov*
> [Historical morphology of the Permic languages]. Moscow: Izdateľstvo AN
> SSSR.
>
>
>
> Utepovich, Bekbergenov H. 2023. Semantic peculiarities of the possessive
> affixes in the Karakalpak language and their equivalents in English. *Journal
> of Advanced Linguistic Studies*. 10(2). 64-82.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Zahra Etebari
>
> Postdoctoral researcher
>
> Department of Linguistics and Philology
>
> Uppsala University
>
> Thunbergsvägen 3H, Box 635
>
> 75126 Uppsala, Sweden
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> När du har kontakt med oss på Uppsala universitet med e-post så innebär
> det att vi behandlar dina personuppgifter. För att läsa mer om hur vi gör
> det kan du läsa här: http://www.uu.se/om-uu/dataskydd-personuppgifter/
>
> E-mailing Uppsala University means that we will process your personal
> data. For more information on how this is performed, please read here:
> http://www.uu.se/en/about-uu/data-protection-policy
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-- 
Guillaume Jacques

Directeur de recherches
CNRS (CRLAO) - EPHE- INALCO
https://scholar.google.fr/citations?user=1XCp2-oAAAAJ&hl=fr
https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/295
<http://cnrs.academia.edu/GuillaumeJacques>
http://panchr.hypotheses.org/
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