Possessive

Apossessiveorkteticform (abbreviatedPOSorPOSS;fromLatin:possessivus;Ancient Greek:κτητικός,romanized:ktētikós) is a word or grammatical construction indicating a relationship ofpossessionin a broad sense. This can include strictownership,or a number of other types of relation to a greater or lesser degree analogous to it.^[1]

Most European languages feature possessive forms associated withpersonal pronouns,like theEnglishmy,mine,your,yours,hisand so on. There are two main ways in which these can be used (and avariety of terminologiesfor each):

Together with anoun,as inmy car,your sisters,his boss.Here the possessive form serves as apossessive determiner.
Without an accompanying noun, as inmine is red,I prefer yours,this book is his.A possessive used in this way is called asubstantive possessive pronoun,apossessive pronounor anabsolute pronoun.

Some languages, including English, also have possessive forms derived from nouns ornominal phrases,such asJane's,thecows'andnobody else's.These can be used in the same two ways as the pronoun-derived forms:Jane's officeorthat one is Jane's.

Possessives are sometimes regarded as agrammatical case(thepossessive case), although they are also sometimes considered to represent thegenitive case,or are not assigned to any case, depending on which language is being considered. On the other hand, some languages, such as theCariban languages,can be said to have apossessed case,used to indicate the other party (the thing possessed) in a possession relationship. A similar feature found in some languages is thepossessive affix,usually a suffix, added to the (possessed) noun to indicate the possessor, as in theFinnishtaloni( "my house" ), wheretalomeans "house" and the suffix-nimeans "my".

The concepts of possessive forms andgenitive formsare sometimes conflated, although they are not exactly the same. The genitive form, which does not exist in modern English as a productive inflection outside of pronouns (see below), represents anofrelationship, which may or may not be possessive; in other words, the possessive is a subset of genitive. For example, the genitive construction "speedof the car"is equivalent to the possessive form"the car'sspeed ". However, the genitive construction" packof dogs"is not the same as the possessive form"dogs'pack "(though it is the same as" dog pack ", which is not possessive).

Formation

From pronouns

Thepersonal pronounsof many languages correspond to both a set ofpossessive determinersand a set of possessivepronouns.For example, theEnglish personal pronounsI,you,he,she,it,weandtheycorrespond to the possessive determinersmy,your,his,her,its,ourandtheirand also to the (substantive) possessive pronounsmine,yours,his,hers,its(rare),oursandtheirs.In some instances there is no difference in form between the determiner and the pronoun; examples include the Englishhis(andits), and informalFinnishmeidän(meaning either "our" or "ours" ).

In some languages, possessive determiners are subject toagreementwith the noun they modify and possessive pronouns may be subject to agreement with theirantecedent,ingender,numberandcase.For example,Frenchhasmon,ma,mes,respectively the masculine singular, feminine singular and plural forms corresponding to the English possessive determinermy,as well as the formsle mien,la mienne,les mien(ne)scorresponding to English possessive pronounmine.

Since personal pronouns may also agree in number and gender with their own antecedent orreferent,the possessive forms may consequently show agreement with either the "possessor" or the "possessed", or both. In French (and most otherRomance languages) the third-person singular possessives do not indicate the gender of the possessor, instead they agree with the possessed (son,saandsescan all mean "his", "her" or "its" ). InSpanishthe number is always indicated but the gender is only indicated for possessive pronouns, not possessive determiners;mi padre, mi madre, mis hermanos, mis hermanas(my father, my mother, my brothers, my sisters), butmío, mía, míos, míaswhen used as "mine" to refer to the previous. This contrasts with standardDutchand English, where the form of the possessives (zijn,haar;his,her,its) indicates the grammatical ornatural genderof the possessor, but does not depend on properties of the possessed. Additionally,Germanand severalDutch dialects^[2]additionally inflect their possessives, thus giving agreement with both possessor and possessed; German hasseinandihrmeaning "his" and "her" respectively, but these inflect to give (for example) feminine forms likeseineandihre,depending on the gender (and number and case) of the thing possessed.

In languages that have agenitive case,the possessive forms corresponding to pronouns may or may not resemble the genitive of those pronouns. For example, inRussian,the genitive of яja"I" is меняmenya( "of me" ), whereas the corresponding possessive is мойmoy( "my, mine", in masculine singular nominative form). InGermanthe two sets of forms are quite similar (for example, the genitive ofich"I" ismeiner,the corresponding possessive pronoun is alsomeinerin the masculine singular nominative, and the possessive determiner ismeinwith various endings).

Some languages have no distinct possessive determiners as such, instead using a pronoun together with apossessive particle– agrammatical particleused to indicate possession. For example, inJapanese,"my" or "mine" can be expressed aswatashi no,wherewatashimeans "I" andnois the possessive particle. Similarly inMandarin Chinese,"my" or "mine" iswǒ de,wherewǒmeans "I" anddeis the possessive particle.

An alternative to the pronominal possessive determiner, found in some languages, includingFinnishandHungarian,is thepossessive affix,usually a suffix, attached to the noun denoting the thing possessed. For example, in Finnish the suffix-nimeans "my", producing forms such astaloni( "my house" ), fromtalo( "house" ). Hungarian possessive suffixes are used in a similar way, as inháza( "his/her house" ), formed fromház( "house" ). In Hungarian this affix can also be used when the possessor is represented by a full noun, as described in the next section.

Pronouns other than personal pronouns, if they have possessive forms, are likely to form them in a similar way to nouns (see below). In English, for example, possessive forms derived from other pronouns includeone's,somebody'sandnobody's.There is however a distinct formwhose^[3]for the possessive of theinterrogativeandrelative pronounwho;other languages may have similarly functioning words, such as the Russian чейchey( "whose?" ). Another possessive found in Russian and otherSlavic languagesis the reflexive possessive, corresponding to the generalreflexive pronoun;the Russian form is свойsvoj(meaning "one's (own)", "my (own)", etc.).

From nouns

In some languages, possessives can be formed from nouns ornominal phrases.In English, this is done using the ending-'s,as inJane's,heaven's,the boy's,those young men's,or sometimes just an apostrophe, as inworkers',Jesus',the soldiers'.Note that the ending can be added at the end of a noun phrase even when the phrase does not end with itsheadnoun, as inthe king of England's;this property inclines many linguists towards the view that the ending is acliticrather than acase ending(seebelow,and further atEnglish possessive).

In languages that have a genitive case, the genitive form of a noun may sometimes be used as a possessive (as in GermanKarls Haus"Karl's house" ). Languages such as Japanese and Chinese form possessive constructions with nouns using possessive particles, in the same way as described for pronouns above. An example from Japanese is:

neko

cat

no

PTCL

iro

color

"the cat's color"

In other languages, noun possessives must be formedperiphrastically,as in Frenchla plume de ma tante( "my aunt's pen", literally "the pen of my aunt" ). InHungarian,the constructionMária házais used ( "Maria's house", literally "Maria her house", where the final-ainházais thepossessive suffixmeaning "her" ). The possessor noun can carry an additionaldativemarker, in which case anarticleappears before the noun. For example, "Peter's house" may be translated either as:

Péter

Peter

háza

his-house

Péternek

of-Peter

a

the

háza

his-house

Syntax

Possessive determiners are used in combination with a noun, playing the role of adeterminerorattributive adjective.In English and some other languages, the use of such a word implies thedefinite article.For example,my carimpliesthe car that belongs to meoris used by me;it is not correct to precede possessives with an article (*the my car) or other definite determiner such as ademonstrative(*this my car), although they can combine with quantifiers in the same ways thatthecan (all my cars,my three cars,etc.; seeEnglish determiners). This is not the case in all languages; for example inItalianthe possessive is usually preceded by another determiner such as an article, as inla mia macchina( "my car", literally "the my car" ) orquel tuo libro( "that book of yours", literally "that your book" ).

Some languages place the possessive after the noun, as inNorwegianboka mi( "my book" ).^[4]Here again the equivalent of the definite article – in this case the definite ending-aon the nounbok– is used in addition to the possessive. However, the formsmin bokormi bok,where the nounbokis in the indefinite form, are equally correct.

Possessive determiners may be modified with anadverb,as adjectives are, although not as freely or as commonly. Such modification is generally limited to such adverbs asmore,less,oras much... as(comparative) ormostly(superlative), for example inThis is more my team than your teamandThis is mostly my team.

Substantive possessive pronouns are used on their own and cannot be used to describe a noun, playing the role ofnoun phrases,sominemay stand for "my cat", "my sister", "my things", etc. In some languages these may require articles or other determiners, as the Frenchle mienetc. In English, the-'spossessives formed from nouns or noun phrases can be used in the same way;the president'smay stand for "the president's office", "the president's policies", etc., as determined by the context.

A related use is that of thepredicative expression,as in sentences likethe book is mine.Hereminemay be considered to be apredicate adjective(likeredinthe book is red) rather than a pronoun; in English, however, the same possessive form is used. Other languages may use differing forms; for example French may use...est à moifor "...is mine".

A particular use of possessive pronouns and noun forms in English is that illustrated in phrases likea friend of mineandthat coat of Fred's,used to form possessive expressions when the desired determiner is something other than the defaulttheimplied in the usual possessive determiner.

Terminology

The terminology used for possessive words and phrases is not consistent among allgrammariansandlinguists.

What some authors refer to aspossessives,others may callgenitives,and vice versa. Nowadays, however, the termgenitiveis most commonly used in relation to languages with a developedcasesystem (in which the "genitive case" often has a wider range of functions than merely forming possessives), while in languages like English, such words are usually called possessives rather than genitives. A given language may have distinct genitive and possessive forms, as in the example of Russian given above. (The English possessive in-'sis sometimes called theSaxon genitive;this alludes to its derivation from the genitive case that existed inOld English.It may also be called theprenominal genitive;this also applies to analogous forms in languages such as German.)

Words like the Englishmyandyourhavetraditionallybeen calledpossessive adjectives.^[5]^[6]However, modern linguists note that they behave more likedeterminersrather than trueadjectives(see examples in the§ Syntaxsection above), and thus prefer the termpossessive determiner.In some other languages, however, the equivalent words behave more like true adjectives (compare the Italian example above, for instance). While for most authors the termpossessive pronounis reserved (as in this article) for possessives likemineandyoursthat do not qualify an explicit noun,^[7]^[8]the term is sometimes taken also to include all possessive forms that correspond to pronouns even though they behave as determiners.^[9]^[10]Some authors who classify both sets of words aspossessive pronounsorgenitive pronounsapply the termsdependent/independent,^[11]weak/strong^[12]oradjectival/substantivalto refer, respectively, tomy,your,etc. andmine,yours,etc. Thusmyis termed adependent(orweakoradjectival)possessive pronoun,whilemineis anindependent(orstrongorsubstantival)possessive pronoun.

According to theOED,^[13]the first reference to possessive pronouns is found in 1530; the first use ofpossessiveas a noun occurs in 1591, the first use ofpossessive case(which notes that it is like the Latin genitive, and may be called the genitive case in reference to English also) occurs in 1763, and the first use ofpossessive adjectivedates from 1870.

The equivalent of Latinpossessivusin Ancient Greek is κτητικός (ktētikós); linguistic terminology also refers to possessives as ktetics, particularly ktetic (possessive) adjectives and names derived from ktetics (ktetic personal names).^[14]

Possessive and possessed case

Nouns or pronouns with a possessive form are sometimes described as being in thepossessive case.A more commonly used term in describing the grammar of various languages isgenitive case,but that usually denotes a case with a broader range of functions than just producing possessive forms. (Some languages occasionally use thedative caseto denote the possessor, as in theSerbo-Croatiankosa mu je gusta"his hair is thick" (literally "the hair to him is thick" in which "to him" is the dative pronounmu).^[15])

Other theorists reject the idea that the possessive in languages like English represents agrammatical casesince possessive forms do not generally behave in a parallel fashion to what are normally identified as cases. In particular, in English, as noted above, the-'scan attach to noun phrases even when they do not end with their head noun, as inthe king of Spain's,which is not typical behavior for a case ending. For further discussion of the issue, seeEnglish possessive § Status of the possessive as a grammatical case.

Some languages, such as theCariban languages,can be said to have apossessed case,which indicates the thing possessed.^[16]In many Afro-Asiatic languages, such as Arabic, nouns take a form with similar significance called theconstruct state,sometimes even if the possessor is marked in the genitive case.Classical Nahuatlsimilarly presents an inflected possessed form (or case) in nouns, which contrasts with a non-possessed form (the absolutive).

Semantics

The relationship expressed by possessive determiners and similar forms is not necessarily one of possession in the strict sense ofownership.In English, strict possession has been found to be expressed in only about 40% of the situations labeled as "possessive" by linguists, a fact which may incline some to prefer the more traditional term "genitive".^[1]The "possessor" may be, for example:

the person or thing to which the "possessed" stands in the designated relationship (my mother,his wife,your subordinates,our boss);
the person or thing of which the "possessed" is a part (my leg,the building's walls);
a person or thing affiliated with or identifying with the "possessed" (his country,our class,my people);
the performer, or sometimes the undergoer, of an action (his arrival,the government's overthrow)
the creator, supervisor, user, etc. of the "possessed" (Prince's album,the Irish jockey's horse).

For more examples, seePossession (linguistics)andEnglish possessive § Semantics.

History

Before the 18th century, the word possessive was not used, and was considered merely one of several uses of thegenitive case.^[17]This began to change in 1762 withRobert Lowth,whose use ofpossessivewas copied by subsequent writers.^[17]One result of this shift in terminology is the mistaken belief that the possessive form is only used for actual cases of possession or ownership (e.g.,mybook, thefamily'shome) and not to indicate other, non-ownership forms of affiliation or association (e.g.,theirneighbor, thetree'senvirons).^[17]

References

^^a ^bCunningham, Bob."Genitive is Not Always Possessive".The alt.usage.english Home Page.Archived fromthe originalon 2014-11-15.Retrieved2014-02-26.
^These includeLimburgishandBrabantian.
^"Definition of whose - Oxford Dictionaries (British & World English)".Archived fromthe originalon 21 July 2012.
^In Norwegian bokmål written form, the phrase could alternatively be written asmin bokdue to bokmål's Danish heritage.
^"My".Merriam-webster.com.Archivedfrom the original on 2017-08-19.Retrieved2017-07-26.
^Biberet al.(1999), pp. 270–72
^All about grammar,p. 69 Archived2023-10-22 at theWayback Machine,Rosemary Allen, 2007
^Easy French step-by-step,p. 210 Archived2023-10-22 at theWayback Machine,Myrna Bell Rochester, McGraw Hill Professional, 2008
^Jesperson (1949), pp. 399–405
^Biberet al.1999, pp. 340–42
^Payne and Huddleston 2002, p. 426
^Quirket al.(1985) pp. 361–62
^Oxford English Dictionary,Second Edition,possessive.
^Fraser 2000,p. 156, 157.
^Kordić, Snježana(1995)."Possessivitätsausdruck durch Relativpronomen im Kroatisch-Serbischen"[The expression of possessiveness by means of relative pronouns in Croat(ian)-Serbian](PDF).Die Welt der Slaven(in German).40(2). Munich: 328, 337–338.ISSN 0043-2520.S2CID 223722257.SSRN 3442732.CROSBI 426794.ZDB-ID 202661-2.Archived(PDF)from the original on 23 September 2013.Retrieved9 June2022.(ÖNB Archived2024-05-18 at theWayback Machine).
^"On reconstructing grammar: comparative Cariban morphosyntax", by Spike Gildea,ISBN 0-19-510952-X,1998,p. 104 Archived2024-05-18 at theWayback Machine
^^a ^b ^cMerriam-Webster's Dictionary of English usage.Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, Inc. 1994. pp. 474–475.ISBN 978-0-87779-132-4.

Sources

Fraser, Peter M.(2000). "Ethnics as Personal Names".Greek Personal Names: Their Value as Evidence(PDF).Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 149–157. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2019-10-18.Retrieved2019-10-18.