Re: Different Possessions

On Wed, 27 Apr 2005 17:10:32 -0400, Tim May <butsuri@...> wrote:

> Ray Brown wrote at 2005-04-27 18:45:50 (+0100)
>  > 'Possession' is a fairly
>  > well-defined concept which, on occasion, may be tested in a court
>  > of law [snip]
>
> In ordinary speech, yes, but the use of the term in linguistics is
> less restricted.  From _Describing Morphosyntax_:
>
>  | Languages typically express many semantic relationships with the
>  | same formal construction used to express ownership.  We will call
>  | such formal constructions *possessive constructions*, even though
>  | the semantic relationship is not always one of possession, e.eg.,
>  | the phrase _my professor_ does not refer to a professor that I
>  | "possess" in the same way as _my clothes_ refers to clothes that I
>  | possess.
[snip]
> Abstract and deverbal nouns aren't mentioned - what does Trask say
> about this?
What did I sing (quite without malice aforethought) when reaching for that
venerable tome? "TRASK! AH-AHH! SAVIOUR OF THE UNIVERSE!" Yes, I've had
that kind of day.

Anyway:

genitive (also possessive) A distinctive case form typically marking a
noun phrase which serves a prossessive role within a larger noun phrase.
... See also possession.

possessive See genitive.

possession A general name for any relation between two noun phrases by
which the second in some sense 'belongs to' the first. Possession is
expressed in two main ways: (1) by a possessive construction, in which
both NPs involved typically form a single larger NP, as in the English
"Lisa's eyes" ... ; (2) by a predication of possession, as in the English
"Lisa has a car". A typology of possessive constructions is given in
Croft, William (1990) _Typology and Universals_, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.

So, the answer to the question "What does Trask say about this?" is in
this case "Not a great deal, though he does provide a doclink to chase".
Anyone care to dig up the reference?




Paul