Swahili possession

This file defines the Swahili have-construction as Heine and Stassen describe it. The possessor is the subject and the possessee follows the comitative na 'with', an instance of Heine's companion schema, "X is with Y", and of Stassen's with-possessive. In the present tense the copula is absent and the subject prefix attaches to na, ni-na saa 'I have a watch'; in the other tenses the copula kuwa 'be' is kept, a-li-ku-wa na wake wawili 'he had two wives'. With a locative class as subject the same construction is the existential, ku-na chakula 'there is food', and the progressive wa-na-ku-la 'they are eating' has the same source. The belong-construction is the equational saa ni y-angu 'the watch is mine', and the attributive possessive marks the possessor phrase with the connective -a agreeing with the possessum, nyumba y-a Habiba 'Habiba's house'.

Main definitions

• Swahili.Possession.na, present, past: the comitative and the present and past have-constructions on a subject prefix

Main results

• Swahili.Possession.present_first_singular, past_third_singular: the forms of the examples from the subject-prefix paradigm
• Swahili.Possession.existential: the existential is the present construction on a locative subject prefix

References

• B. Heine, Possession: Cognitive Sources, Forces, and Grammaticalization (1997)
• L. Stassen, Predicative Possession (2009)

def Swahili.Possession.na : Morphology.Morph

The comitative na 'with', the predicate of the have-construction.

Equations

• Swahili.Possession.na = Morphology.Morph.free "na"

def Swahili.Possession.present (s : Morphology.Morph) : List Morphology.Morph

The present tense have-construction puts the subject prefix on na, with no copula.

Equations

• Swahili.Possession.present s = [s, Swahili.Possession.na]

def Swahili.Possession.past (s : Morphology.Morph) : List Morphology.Morph

The past tense have-construction keeps the copula, the subject prefix, the past -li- and ku-wa before na.

Equations

• Swahili.Possession.past s = [s, Morphology.Morph.pref "li", Morphology.Morph.pref "ku", Morphology.Morph.root "wa", Swahili.Possession.na]

theorem Swahili.Possession.present_first_singular : Option.map present (subjectPrefix.realize (Agreement.Bundle.personNumber Person.first Number.singular)) = some [Morphology.Morph.pref "ni", na]

ni-na saa 'I have a watch'.

theorem Swahili.Possession.past_third_singular : Option.map past (subjectPrefix.realize (Agreement.Bundle.personNumber Person.third Number.singular)) = some [Morphology.Morph.pref "a", Morphology.Morph.pref "li", Morphology.Morph.pref "ku", Morphology.Morph.root "wa", na]

a-li-ku-wa na wake wawili 'he had two wives'.

theorem Swahili.Possession.existential : present NounClass.cl17.subjPrefix = [Morphology.Morph.pref "ku", na] ∧ present NounClass.cl16.subjPrefix = [Morphology.Morph.pref "pa", na]

The existential is the present construction on a locative subject prefix, ku-na chakula 'there is food' and pa-na watu wengi 'there are many people'.