[Lingtyp] Discourse functions of possessive markers

[Marianne Mithun]

Dear Misha and Zahra,

Good observation. I was thinking of exactly the kinds of examples Randy
mentions second:

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

Pretty common, I'd say, at least in North America. (Not something I myself
would say, of course!)

Marianne



On Wed, Jul 17, 2024 at 11:38 AM Randy J. LaPolla via Lingtyp <
lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org> wrote:

> 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>:
>
>> 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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