Languages & Linguistics
Possessive Adjectives
Possessive adjectives are used to indicate ownership or possession in a sentence. They modify a noun to show who or what it belongs to. In English, common possessive adjectives include "my," "your," "his," "her," "its," "our," and "their." These adjectives help clarify relationships and ownership within a sentence.
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eBook - PDFArchaic Syntax in Indo-European
The Spread of Transitivity in Latin and French
- Brigitte Bauer(Author)
- 2011(Publication Date)
- De Gruyter Mouton(Publisher)
These consid-erations account for the complex patterns in possessive marking of the various noun classes in these languages. This overview shows that although possession is a widespread phenom-enon and linguistically important feature, the notion itself as well as its expression present a significant variety cross-linguistically as well as in the individual languages. In the following pages I will analyze the two basic ways of conveying possession in Indo-European languages, attributive and predicative structures. 4.2. Possession in Indo-European languages In Indo-European languages possession is expressed in attributive as well as predicative constructions. Yet they only use a few of the numerous grammatical processes that are attested in the cross-linguistic analyses mentioned in the previous sections. The attributive structures that are well represented in the daughter languages include adjectives, nominal and 162 Possessive mihi est constructions pronominal genitives, and possessive pronouns. In addition, particles are found in Old Hittite, cf.: Hittite: SAG.GEME.IR MES e-es-har-se-mi-it (BoTU 919) servants their-blood 'the servants's blood' (Example from Gamkrelidze and Ivanov 1995:241) Since similar examples can be found in Sumerian (Gamkrelidze and Ivanov 1995:242), this type of structure may be borrowed. In addition the struc-ture, which is characterized by head marking (the grammatical element is attached to the head of the noun phrase), differs from the normal Indo-European grammatical structures, which are dependent marking. Moreo-ver, the absence of instances in languages other than Old Hittite further supports Gamkrelidze's and Ivanov's assumption that these structures were borrowings. By contrast, adjectives commonly express possession in the early daugh-ter languages, where they combine with names. See for example, patro-nymic expressions in Homer: Τελαμόνιος Αίας Telamon-Adj.-Norn.
eBook - PDF- Jacek Fisiak(Author)
- 2011(Publication Date)
- De Gruyter Mouton(Publisher)
12. The difference between adjectival-possessive and determiner-pos-sessive languages is regarded as parametric by some commentators. Giorgi — Langobardi (forthcoming), for instance, regarding possessives as genitives NPs at D-structure, posit that an open parameter of Universal Grammar allows them to surface either as adjectives or as determiners. 4 Lyons (1986) goes further, claiming that an adjectival-possessive language must use an overt definite marker in specifier position, to constitute a definite NP, 5 whereas in determiner-possessive languages the possessive specifier itself carries definite interpretation. For him, definiteness is configurationally determined — the structural position of specifier within the NP is interpreted as definite. Thus r il mio libro and r mon livre 1 are interpreted as definite NPs because the specifier slot is filled by Γ ΐΓ and r morP respectively. 13. Whether indeed r mon livre 1 is an inherently definite NP is open to doubt (cf. Posner 1988). In modern French the question of definite- Parametric changes and Romance possessives 341 ness is complicated by the semantic ambivalence of the definite article C/e 1 ), which is not unambiguously a signal of specificity (cf. its use with abstracts — le silence, or with inherently specific referents — La France). It does mark a certain degree of familiarity with its referent (or, in pragmatic terms, accessibility — cf. Ariel 1988 — within a shared framework of thought as well as in the situational or discourse context). For most French grammarians (following Guillaume 1919), it is the most generalising of the determinants or discriminants , which serve to insert a concept into a specific discourse by limiting its potential extension (cf., e. g., Grevisse 1986: 906; Chevalier et al. 1964: 213; Valin et al. 1985: 61 —62). The role of the possessive may however be a quantifying rather than a generalising one, akin to the indefinite as well as to the definite article.
eBook - PDF- Martin J. Endley(Author)
- 2007(Publication Date)
- Information Age Publishing(Publisher)
Thus, after one particular class, one of my colleagues might say the follow- ing to me: Adjectives and Adverbs in Linguistic Perspective 93 (29) The students were being very Korean today. In one sense, this is an odd thing to say. We do not normally think of “Korean” as a property that is subject to change. Surely one either is Korean or one is not. When used in this way, however, the adjective is being treated as if it were a dynamic property, something that is changeable. Given an appropriate context, it would not be difficult to make sense of an utterance like (29). If I heard someone say this, I would understand it to mean that the students had been displaying many of the characteristics we often as- sociate with Korean students, but to a greater degree than normal. (I will leave you to decide what those characteristics are!) Adjectives as Attributive and Restrictive One basic function that adjectives perform is to attribute some property to an entity identified by a noun. Consider a noun phrase such as the students. Of course, it is certainly possible to use this without an adjective. However, speakers will very often want to add something more. For example: (30) a. The happy students. b. The thoughtful, witty students. c. The intelligent, diligent, attentive students. The adjectives happy, thoughtful, diligent, and so on provide additional information about the students. One effect of this is to restrict the range of possible items to which the entire NP (including the adjective) can apply. To give another example, the expression All the students in the class includes everyone in the room; however, All the smiling students in the class restricts the reference to only some students (those who happen to be smiling). Adding further adjectives restricts the reference still further: All the smiling, attentive students. You get the idea. By attributing some property to the noun, adjectives help to establish the reference of the noun more precisely.
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