Re: Genitive relationships (WAS: Construct States)

On Tue, 9 Mar 1999, Tim Smith wrote:

> Hwendaaru has a possessive construction modeled after that of Hindi/Urdu:
> the possessor noun appears with the oblique case suffix, followed by a
> possessive particle which agrees in definiteness, number, gender and case
> with the possessed NP.  The default order is possessor-possessum
> (head-final), but this order can be reversed if the possessor is contrastive
> or otherwise emphatic.
>
> hantan tu klaathu = "the man's house" (def. nom. sg.)
>
> hant-a-          n   t-   u-           0   klaath-u-          0
> man- Def:Sg:Anim-Obl Poss-Def:Sg:Inan- Nom house- Def:Sg:Inan-Nom
Is this possessive particle used elsewhere in the grammar, or just
in possessive constructions?  It reminds me of the 'linking morpheme'
found in possessive constructions in many Bantu languages, except
that the latter agrees with the possessor rather than the possessum.

Matt.