Re: Possession and genitivity

On Saturday 30 April 2005 20:45 CEST, Joseph Bridwell wrote:

 > > One such language is spoken on this island - it's
 > > called Welsh   :)
 >
 > Ah, yes - possession through nouns being juxtaposition. I
 > believe Semitic languages do this too.
 >
 > And English, which uses "of" more often to mark false
 > possessive and partitive, than to mark real possession.

German also differs:

   1) a. In writing:

         das           Buch  des           Jungen
         ART.sg.n.NOM  book  ART.sg.m.GEN  boy

         "the book of the boy."

      b. Colloquial:

         dem           Jungen   sein       Buch
         ART.sg.m.DAT  boy      3sg.m.GEN  book

         "the boy his book"

   2)  ein              Blatt  Papier
       INDEF-ART.n.NOM  sheet  paper

       "a sheet paper"

French has (1) le livre du garçon and (2) une pièce du
papier, the same as in English actually.

Carsten

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