Basque genitives

Christophe wrote:

>>>They are both genitive because they are both used to make nouns complete other
>>>nouns (with the other cases it's impossible - except the dative in some cases
>>>for what I know -. Those can only complete verbs). The possessive genitive,
>>>as its name indicates, is for true possession, the kind of possession
>>>described best by the verb "to own". The locative genitive is for other kinds
>>>of genitive relationships. For instance, in the phrase "the door of the
>>>house", the house doesn't *own* the door. It just indicates that the door is
>>>found inside (or at the limit of :)) ) the house. For such a relationship,
>>>Basque uses the locative genitive, giving "etxeko atea", with "etxe" meaning
>>>"house". It's called "locative genitive" because the kind of relationships it
>>>describes are usually spatial or temporal.<<<
While I studied Basque I was given an example by Rudolf de Rijk (who regrettably
died this summer) that helped me very much understanding the difference between
-(r)en 'possessive genitive' and -ko 'locative genitive'.

exte-ko kea 'the smoke of the house'
etxe-aren kea 'the smoke of the house'

etxe 'house'
ke 'smoke'
-a article

In the first example the smoke is coming out of the chimney. The smoke is not a
part of the house, but of the fire in the stove or something like that.
In the second example the smoke is coming from the house because it is on fire
and here the smoke is part of the house.

He also said that -ko resembled Japanese 'no' in thsi respect. I don't know
enough about Japanese, but maybe someone else does?

Ro

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