[Lingtyp] Discourse functions of possessive markers

[Randy J. LaPolla]

Dear Michael,
Are you thinking of the listing use of “your”, as in the following made-up example? (I normally don’t like using made-up examples, but when I tried to search for a natural example the results were overwhelmed by the song “You’ve got your troubles and I‘ve got mine”.)

What kinds of linguists are there? Well, you’ve got your formalists, your functionalists, your cognitivists, your typologists . . .

Here “your” could be replaced by “the”, so it does seem to fit what Zahra is looking for. 

I have certainly heard this sort of thing, but don’t know if it is restricted to a particular region, though to my ear it sounds better with a Brooklyn accent (as does everything else ;-) ).

Randy


> On 18 Jul 2024, at 2:10 AM, Michael Daniel via Lingtyp <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org> wrote:
> 
> Dear Zahra, 
> 
> I think I heard a variety of American English where "your" was used in a very much discourse way, literally on one NP out of three or four. I cannot describe the function properly (probably, supporting contact with the interlocutor) and cannot place it regionally - maybe native speakers will help.
> 
> Michael Daniel
> 
> --
> Михаил Даниэль
> Я осуждаю агрессию моей страны против Украины.
> Michael Daniel
> I condemn my country's aggression in Ukraine.
> 
> 
> вт, 16 июл. 2024 г. в 14:53, Zahra Etebari Shekarsaraei via Lingtyp <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org <mailto:lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>>:
>> 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
>> 
>> Kútip turǵan adamı kelmedi.                                           [Karakalpak]
>> The person he/she has been waiting for did not come.
>> 
>> (Utepovich 2023: 80)
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> Contrast
>> 
>> 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
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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>> 
>> 
>> 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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