Kirtumur nouns: Difference between revisions

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[[w:Possession|Possession]] is a category that describes an asymmetric relationship between two constituents: the possessor and the possessed. The possessed can be further divided into alienable and [[w:Inalienable possession|inalienable]]. When something is inalienably possessed, it is usually an attribute or a quality that can not be physically removed from the possessor and blood relations. A distinct inalienable category exists only for first and second persons in Kirtumur.
[[w:Possession|Possession]] is a category that describes an asymmetric relationship between two constituents: the possessor and the possessed. The possessed can be further divided into alienable and [[w:Inalienable possession|inalienable]]. When something is inalienably possessed, it is usually an attribute or a quality that can not be physically removed from the possessor and blood relations. A distinct inalienable category exists only for first and second persons in Kirtumur.


Like number, possession is marked with suffixes (inalieble possession is marked with prefixes instead), but they share some clitic-like behaviour with the case markers, for example: ''ōl ŋiwinu nōsa phasa'''nu''''' (blue eye-du bright.3rd.sg-stative wide.3rd.sg-stative-3sgPoss) "his/her wide bright blue eyes", where ''-nu'' "his" is phrase-final, even though the possessed is ''ŋiwinu'' "eyes". Since both "bright" and "wide" are stative verbs, they do not receive a possessive marker, but if an adjective is noun-like, a possessive marker will be used to denote the relation to the noun it modifies: ''uheim ukhinaušat'''nu''''' "a magnificent palace" (palace magnificent-3sgPoss). Multiple possession suffixes can be used to mark more than one possessor, but, unlike case markers, they do not necessarily stack at the end of a phrase: ''ninnau hephenu'' "their child’s hair" (child-3duPoss hair-3sgPoss, but ''nini hephenunau'' is equally possible and is a marker of a noble speech), in this example the absolutive marker ''-i'' is not used with the noun, it is never used with possessed nouns.
Like number, possession is marked with suffixes (inalieble possession is marked with prefixes instead), but they share some clitic-like behaviour with the case markers, for example: ''ōl ŋiwinnu nōsa phasa'''nu''''' (blue eye-du bright.3rd.sg-stative wide.3rd.sg-stative-3sgPoss) "his/her wide bright blue eyes", where ''-nu'' "his" is phrase-final, even though the possessed is ''ŋiwinnu'' "eyes". Since both "bright" and "wide" are stative verbs, they do not receive a possessive marker, but if an adjective is noun-like, a possessive marker will be used to denote the relation to the noun it modifies: ''uheim ukhinaušat'''nu''''' "a magnificent palace" (palace magnificent-3sgPoss). Multiple possession suffixes can be used to mark more than one possessor, but, unlike case markers, they do not necessarily stack at the end of a phrase: ''ninnau hephenu'' "their child’s hair" (child-3duPoss hair-3sgPoss, but ''nini hephenunau'' is equally possible and is a marker of a noble speech), in this example the absolutive marker ''-i'' is not used with the noun, it is never used with possessed nouns.


The possessive suffixes are:
The possessive suffixes are:
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