[Lingtyp] Discourse functions of possessive markers

Thu Jul 18 10:42:50 UTC 2024

Thanks, Nigel, Andrew, Marianne, and Jürgen!

Jürgen, I think the generic sense of the examples you cite might come from the use of “average” with the phrase, but also might be partially due to the larger context.

Randy

> On 18 Jul 2024, at 3:58 AM, Juergen Bohnemeyer <jb77 at buffalo.edu> wrote:
> 
> Dear all – You‘ll find plenty of examples in COCA etc. if you search for the phrase _your average_:
>  
> Your average polite American will look the waiter or waitress in the eye, smile, have…
> Their problem was simply a poor location in the minds of your average theater-goer.
> …CHopper would have packed a bigger punch and would have traveled much farther than your average motorcycle. 
>  
> And on and on. But, this use seems to be restricted to a form of generic reference. I don’t think this is about definiteness per se or definiteness in any narrow sense.
>  
> Best – Juergen
>  
> Juergen Bohnemeyer (He/Him)
> Professor, Department of Linguistics
> University at Buffalo 
> 
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> (Leonard Cohen)  
> -- 
>  
>  
> From: Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of Marianne Mithun via Lingtyp <LINGTYP at listserv.linguistlist.org>
> Date: Wednesday, July 17, 2024 at 15:26
> To: Randy J. LaPolla <randy.lapolla at gmail.com>
> Cc: <LINGTYP at listserv.linguistlist.org>
> Subject: Re: [Lingtyp] Discourse functions of possessive markers
> 
> 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 <mailto: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 <mailto: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
> a.      Kútip turǵan adamı kelmedi.                                           [Karakalpak]
> The person he/she has been waiting for did not come.
> 
> (Utepovich 2023: 80)
> 
>  
> 
> Contrast
> b.      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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