Possession — typological feature substrate #
[Sta09b] [Sta13a] [Nic86] [NB13d] [NB13a] [Hei97] [Hei09a] [Aik12] [DH13b]
Theory-neutral classification enums for possession. Per-language values are
bare defs in Fragments/<Lang>/Possession.lean, consumed by
Studies/NicholsBickel2013, Studies/Heine1997, and
Studies/KampanarouAlexiadou2026. Bare-root Possession namespace under
Features/, like Features/Case.
Main definitions #
Obligatoriness (WALS 58A), Classification (59A), AffixPosition (57A),
PredicativeStrategy ([Sta09b] four-way; [Sta13a] adds Genitive),
AdnominalMarking ([Nic86]), Notion and Source ([Hei97]),
InalienabilityRank, and the neutral Alienability cut. Per-language values
are bare defs in Fragments/<Lang>/Possession.lean; cross-linguistic
aggregation uses a study-local row in Studies/NicholsBickel2013.lean.
Notes #
These enums adopt specific frameworks, not field-wide consensus:
PredicativeStrategy is Stassen's typology (Genitive is his WALS 117A addition,
grouped with Locational as "Oblique Possessive"); Classification collapses
Mayan/Oceanic multi-class systems into threeOrMore; Source (Heine's event
schemas) and PredicativeStrategy are parallel typologies bridged by
predicativeSource.
WALS 58A: whether some nouns (kinship, body parts) require possessive marking.
- exists_ : Obligatoriness
Obligatory possessive inflection exists (Mohawk, Navajo).
- noObligatory : Obligatoriness
No obligatory possessive inflection (English, Russian).
- unclear : Obligatoriness
Inflection exists but is never obligatory; data insufficient.
Instances For
Equations
- Possession.instDecidableEqObligatoriness x✝ y✝ = if h : x✝.ctorIdx = y✝.ctorIdx then isTrue ⋯ else isFalse ⋯
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
Equations
- Possession.instReprObligatoriness = { reprPrec := Possession.instReprObligatoriness.repr }
WALS 59A: whether possession is morphosyntactically classified (alienability).
- noClassification : Classification
One construction for all nouns (English, Russian).
- twoWay : Classification
Two-way, typically alienable vs inalienable (Fijian, Hawaiian).
- threeOrMore : Classification
Three or more possessive classes.
Instances For
Equations
- Possession.instDecidableEqClassification x✝ y✝ = if h : x✝.ctorIdx = y✝.ctorIdx then isTrue ⋯ else isFalse ⋯
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
Equations
- Possession.instReprClassification = { reprPrec := Possession.instReprClassification.repr }
How a language predicates possession ("I have X"); [Sta09b] four-way, [Sta13a] (WALS 117A) adds Genitive.
- haveVerb : PredicativeStrategy
Transitive 'have' verb (English, Mandarin).
- locational : PredicativeStrategy
Existential with possessor in a locative/oblique (Russian, Finnish, Irish, Hindi).
- genitive : PredicativeStrategy
Existential with possessor in the genitive, "X's Y exists" (Turkish
var). - topic : PredicativeStrategy
Possessor topicalized over an existential comment (Japanese).
- comitative : PredicativeStrategy
Comitative "I am with Y" (Swahili
-na).
Instances For
Equations
- Possession.instDecidableEqPredicativeStrategy x✝ y✝ = if h : x✝.ctorIdx = y✝.ctorIdx then isTrue ⋯ else isFalse ⋯
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
Equations
[Nic86]; WALS 24A [NB13a]: locus of NP-internal marking.
- headMarking : AdnominalMarking
Marker on the possessed head noun (Hungarian, Swahili).
- dependentMarking : AdnominalMarking
Marker on the possessor (English
's, Japaneseno). - doubleMarking : AdnominalMarking
Both possessor and head marked (Turkish, Georgian).
- zeroMarking : AdnominalMarking
No overt marker; word order alone (WALS "no marking"; Vietnamese).
Instances For
Equations
- Possession.instDecidableEqAdnominalMarking x✝ y✝ = if h : x✝.ctorIdx = y✝.ctorIdx then isTrue ⋯ else isFalse ⋯
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
Equations
- Possession.instReprAdnominalMarking = { reprPrec := Possession.instReprAdnominalMarking.repr }
WALS 57A: position of pronominal possessive affixes on the noun.
- prefixes : AffixPosition
Possessive prefixes (Bantu, many Papuan).
- suffixes : AffixPosition
Possessive suffixes (Turkish, Hungarian, Finnish).
- both : AffixPosition
Both prefixes and suffixes.
- noAffix : AffixPosition
No affixes; independent words/clitics (English
my, Mandarinde).
Instances For
Equations
- Possession.instDecidableEqAffixPosition x✝ y✝ = if h : x✝.ctorIdx = y✝.ctorIdx then isTrue ⋯ else isFalse ⋯
Equations
- Possession.instReprAffixPosition = { reprPrec := Possession.instReprAffixPosition.repr }
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
[Hei97]: semantic targets of possession (vs Source, the diachronic origin).
- physical : Notion
Physical possession ("a pen in my hand").
- temporary : Notion
Temporary possession ("a rental car").
- permanent : Notion
Permanent possession ("a house").
- inalienable : Notion
Inalienable possession ("two sisters", "blue eyes").
- abstract : Notion
Abstract possession ("a headache", "an idea").
- inanimateInalienable : Notion
Inanimate inalienable ("the tree has branches").
- inanimateAlienable : Notion
Inanimate alienable ("the room has a window").
Instances For
Equations
- Possession.instDecidableEqNotion x✝ y✝ = if h : x✝.ctorIdx = y✝.ctorIdx then isTrue ⋯ else isFalse ⋯
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
- Possession.instReprNotion.repr Possession.Notion.physical prec✝ = Repr.addAppParen (Std.Format.nest (if prec✝ ≥ 1024 then 1 else 2) (Std.Format.text "Possession.Notion.physical")).group prec✝
- Possession.instReprNotion.repr Possession.Notion.temporary prec✝ = Repr.addAppParen (Std.Format.nest (if prec✝ ≥ 1024 then 1 else 2) (Std.Format.text "Possession.Notion.temporary")).group prec✝
- Possession.instReprNotion.repr Possession.Notion.permanent prec✝ = Repr.addAppParen (Std.Format.nest (if prec✝ ≥ 1024 then 1 else 2) (Std.Format.text "Possession.Notion.permanent")).group prec✝
- Possession.instReprNotion.repr Possession.Notion.abstract prec✝ = Repr.addAppParen (Std.Format.nest (if prec✝ ≥ 1024 then 1 else 2) (Std.Format.text "Possession.Notion.abstract")).group prec✝
Instances For
Equations
- Possession.instReprNotion = { reprPrec := Possession.instReprNotion.repr }
Coarse inalienability cline (body-part/kinship rank highest). toNat is an
operationalization for comparison, not a claimed universal — [Nic86]
and [Aik12] treat kinship and body-parts as co-central.
- bodyPart : InalienabilityRank
- kinship : InalienabilityRank
- spatialRelation : InalienabilityRank
- partWhole : InalienabilityRank
- culturalItem : InalienabilityRank
- generalProperty : InalienabilityRank
Instances For
Equations
- Possession.instDecidableEqInalienabilityRank x✝ y✝ = if h : x✝.ctorIdx = y✝.ctorIdx then isTrue ⋯ else isFalse ⋯
Equations
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
Numeric rank (higher = more likely inalienable); see InalienabilityRank.
Equations
- Possession.InalienabilityRank.bodyPart.toNat = 5
- Possession.InalienabilityRank.kinship.toNat = 4
- Possession.InalienabilityRank.spatialRelation.toNat = 3
- Possession.InalienabilityRank.partWhole.toNat = 2
- Possession.InalienabilityRank.culturalItem.toNat = 1
- Possession.InalienabilityRank.generalProperty.toNat = 0
Instances For
[Hei97] / [Hei09a]: diachronic source schemas of predicative possession.
- action : Source
Action "X takes Y" (English
have< OEhabban). - location : Source
Location "Y is at X" (Finnish adessive, Russian
u). - companion : Source
Companion "X is with Y" (Swahili
-na). - genitive : Source
Genitive "X's Y exists" (Turkish
var). - goal : Source
Goal "Y exists for X" (Hindi, Irish).
- source : Source
Source "Y exists from X".
- topic : Source
Topic "as for X, Y exists" (Japanese).
- equation : Source
Equation "Y is X's" (Scots Gaelic).
Instances For
Equations
- Possession.instDecidableEqSource x✝ y✝ = if h : x✝.ctorIdx = y✝.ctorIdx then isTrue ⋯ else isFalse ⋯
Equations
- Possession.instReprSource = { reprPrec := Possession.instReprSource.repr }
Equations
- Possession.instReprSource.repr Possession.Source.action prec✝ = Repr.addAppParen (Std.Format.nest (if prec✝ ≥ 1024 then 1 else 2) (Std.Format.text "Possession.Source.action")).group prec✝
- Possession.instReprSource.repr Possession.Source.location prec✝ = Repr.addAppParen (Std.Format.nest (if prec✝ ≥ 1024 then 1 else 2) (Std.Format.text "Possession.Source.location")).group prec✝
- Possession.instReprSource.repr Possession.Source.companion prec✝ = Repr.addAppParen (Std.Format.nest (if prec✝ ≥ 1024 then 1 else 2) (Std.Format.text "Possession.Source.companion")).group prec✝
- Possession.instReprSource.repr Possession.Source.genitive prec✝ = Repr.addAppParen (Std.Format.nest (if prec✝ ≥ 1024 then 1 else 2) (Std.Format.text "Possession.Source.genitive")).group prec✝
- Possession.instReprSource.repr Possession.Source.goal prec✝ = Repr.addAppParen (Std.Format.nest (if prec✝ ≥ 1024 then 1 else 2) (Std.Format.text "Possession.Source.goal")).group prec✝
- Possession.instReprSource.repr Possession.Source.source prec✝ = Repr.addAppParen (Std.Format.nest (if prec✝ ≥ 1024 then 1 else 2) (Std.Format.text "Possession.Source.source")).group prec✝
- Possession.instReprSource.repr Possession.Source.topic prec✝ = Repr.addAppParen (Std.Format.nest (if prec✝ ≥ 1024 then 1 else 2) (Std.Format.text "Possession.Source.topic")).group prec✝
- Possession.instReprSource.repr Possession.Source.equation prec✝ = Repr.addAppParen (Std.Format.nest (if prec✝ ≥ 1024 then 1 else 2) (Std.Format.text "Possession.Source.equation")).group prec✝
Instances For
Likely grammaticalization source of each predicative strategy.
Equations
- Possession.predicativeSource Possession.PredicativeStrategy.haveVerb = Possession.Source.action
- Possession.predicativeSource Possession.PredicativeStrategy.locational = Possession.Source.location
- Possession.predicativeSource Possession.PredicativeStrategy.genitive = Possession.Source.genitive
- Possession.predicativeSource Possession.PredicativeStrategy.topic = Possession.Source.topic
- Possession.predicativeSource Possession.PredicativeStrategy.comitative = Possession.Source.companion
Instances For
The neutral alienability cut #
Neutral alienable/inalienable cut, low in Features so the typological
Classification, DM PossessionType, and V&J PossessionRelationType can
coarsen onto it instead of re-stipulating the contrast.
- inalienable : Alienability
- alienable : Alienability
Instances For
Equations
- Possession.instDecidableEqAlienability x✝ y✝ = if h : x✝.ctorIdx = y✝.ctorIdx then isTrue ⋯ else isFalse ⋯
Equations
- Possession.instReprAlienability = { reprPrec := Possession.instReprAlienability.repr }
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
A language draws the alienability cut iff it classifies possession at all.
Equations
Instances For
Coarsen the cline at a language's cut: ranks at or above cut are inalienable.
Equations
- cut.alienabilityAt r = if cut.toNat ≤ r.toNat then Possession.Alienability.inalienable else Possession.Alienability.alienable