Re: Possession (was: Re: Ergative)

On Wed, 21 Oct 1998, Matt Pearson wrote:

> Use of BE + a dative or locative expression to denote "have" is quite
> common.  Both Russian and Hindi express "I have a book" as "a book is
> beside me".  I think the Celtic languages do this as well.  So do
> Hungarian, Finnish, and Turkish.
A book is with me, in Welsh.  I've toyed for a long time with making this
a part of Teonaht.

>
> What's less common, I think, is having both a BE + dative/locative and
> a HAVE construction in the same language (as in Latin and French).
>
Teonaht already has a "have" construction, so giving it a BE +
dative/locative would, as you say, stretch it into the uncommon even more
than it already is.


Cool stuff about Tokana snipped...

I like the fact that you use so many different constructions to express
different forms of having, and this I'm working out, actually, in my own
T.  Presently, there is a distinction, of course, between possession that
is agentive and possession that isn't:  Somebody has blue eyes through no
willful act of his own, but someone has a house because he's bought it.
_aned_ and _harem_.  I think the gods, though, should be exempt from all
unagentive acts:  The gods HAVE (harem, not aned as I have written it)
retractible claws because they are gods and have planned everything.

Sally

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Sally Caves
scaves@frontiernet.net
http://www.frontiernet.net/~scaves/teonaht.html

Rin euab ouarjo vopy vytssema tohda uo zef:
ar al aippara brottwav; ad kemban aril yllefo
brotwav fenom; vybbrysan brotwav an; he ad
edirmerem brotwav kronom.

"A cat and a man are not all that different.
Both are on my bed; both lay their head on their
arm; both have mustaches; both purr when they
sleep."
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