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Removing the owner: Non-specified possessor marking in Arawak languages*
journal contribution
posted on 2021-10-27, 22:32 authored by Alexandra AikhenvaldAlexandra AikhenvaldIn most Arawak languages, obligatorily possessed nouns are bound forms. They have to be accompanied by a possessor. If the possessor is unknown or irrelevant, the noun will take the non-specified possessor suffix. A suffix of the same segmental form occurs in deverbal nominalizations with unspecified arguments, or as a nominalizer on verbs. We hypothesise that the non-specified possessor suffix was originally a feature of obligatorily possessed nouns denoting body parts and a selection of culturally important items (including ‘house’) but not kinship terms. The common Arawak polysemy of a non-specified possessor marker and a nominalizer, reconstructible for the proto-language, appears to be cross-linguistically rare.
History
Volume
75Issue
2Start Page
175End Page
233Number of Pages
59eISSN
1467-9582ISSN
0039-3193Publisher
Wiley-blackwellPublisher DOI
Language
enPeer Reviewed
- Yes
Open Access
- No
Author Research Institute
- Centre for Indigenous Health Equity Research
Era Eligible
- Yes