Universals in possessive morphology

Vestigial possessive morphology in Na-Dene and Yeniseian1

Vestigial possessive morphology in Na-Dene and Yeniseian

External comparison with possessive constructions in the Yeniseian languages of Siberia suggests a diachronic explanation for morphological idiosyncrasies associated with NaDene possessed nouns, postpositions, directionals, and demonstrative prefixes. Section 2 discusses the nasal-class prefix that appears before certain inalienably possessed nouns in Athabaskan (Dene) languages. Section 3 intr...

Universals in Semantics ∗

This article surveys the state of the art in the field of semantic universals. We examine potential semantic universals in three areas: (i) the lexicon, (ii) semantic “glue” (functional morphemes and composition principles), and (iii) pragmatics. At the level of the lexicon, we find remarkably few convincing semantic universals. At the level of functional morphemes and composition principles, w...

Universals in semantics

This article surveys the state of the art in the field of semantic universals. We examine potential semantic universals in three areas: (i) the lexicon, (ii) semantic “glue” (functional morphemes and composition principles), and (iii) pragmatics. At the level of the lexicon, we find remarkably few convincing semantic universals. At the level of functional morphemes and composition principles, w...

Genitive Case and Possessive Adjective in Anatolian

One of the most famous features of the Anatolian Indo-European languages is the widespread use of an inflected adjective (that agrees with its head noun in gender, number and case) in place of the genitive case. In some languages use of this adjective leads to total or near total loss of the genitive. Less well-known is the variety of exponents of the genitive case itself in Anatolian. The foll...