Re: Possession and genitivity

Hallo!

On Fri, 29 Apr 2005 15:22:56 -0000,
caeruleancentaur <caeruleancentaur@...> wrote:

> --- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, Joseph Bridwell <zhosh@2...> wrote:
>
> > be used for more abstract relationships (shape
> > classifiers, for instance: "a sheet of paper"
> > is "lhazhi rjaxat" with "paper" in the genitive
> > case).
>
> >>This is sometimes called the partitive or false possessive.
>
> I know this usage, rather, as the Genitive of Material or Contents,
> e.g., a
> sheet of paper, a jug of wine, a herd of cattle, a spring of fresh
> water.
>
> The Genitive of the Whole (or the Partitive Genitive) denotes
> something of which only a part is relevant: some of the men, many of
> the witnesses, five of the horses.
ObConlang: Old Albic uses the locative for "genitival" relationships
of these kinds, as well as for inalienable possession.

(1) rasta      chvanemasa
    twelve:AGT dog-PL-LOC-AGT
    `twelve dogs'

(Note suffixaufnahme on _chvanemasa_.)

(2) crañ malcas
    jug  milk-LOC
    `a jug of milk'

(3) rank omas      heliromas
    arm  the:M-LOC healer-M-LOC
    `the healer's arm'

But alienable possession is expressed by the genitive:

(4) mbar  os        lacalos
    house the:M-GEN councillor-M-GEN
    `the councillor's house'

Only animate nouns have a genitive, while all nouns, both animate
and inanimate, have a locative.

Greetings,

Jörg.