Obligatory possession
Encyclopedia
Obligatory possession is a linguistic
phenomenon common in languages with nouns inflected for possessor. Certain words, commonly kinship terms and body parts, cannot occur without a possessor. The World Atlas of Language Structures
(WALS) lists 43 languages in its 244 language sample as having obligatory possession. Languages with obligatory possession are concentrated in New Guinea and in North and South America. Generally, obligatory possession is found throughout a family (e.g., Algonquian languages
, represented by Plains Cree in the WALS sample, or Mayan languages
represented by Tzutujil
in the WALS sample), but not all Athabaskan languages
have it. Slavey
does not have obligatory possession but Navajo
does. Obligatory possession is also present in the language isolate
Haida
.
Obligatory possession is sometimes called inalienable possession
. Inalienable possession
is a semantic notion, i.e., largely dependent on the way a culture structures the world, while obligatory possession is a property of morphemes. In general, nouns with the property of requiring obligatorily possession are notionally inalienably possessed, but the fit is rarely, if ever perfect.
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
phenomenon common in languages with nouns inflected for possessor. Certain words, commonly kinship terms and body parts, cannot occur without a possessor. The World Atlas of Language Structures
World Atlas of Language Structures
The World Atlas of Language Structures is a database of structural properties of languages gathered from descriptive materials. It was first published by Oxford University Press as a book with CD-ROM in 2005, and was released as the second edition on the Internet in April 2008...
(WALS) lists 43 languages in its 244 language sample as having obligatory possession. Languages with obligatory possession are concentrated in New Guinea and in North and South America. Generally, obligatory possession is found throughout a family (e.g., Algonquian languages
Algonquian languages
The Algonquian languages also Algonkian) are a subfamily of Native American languages which includes most of the languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically similar Algonquin dialect of the Ojibwe language, which is a...
, represented by Plains Cree in the WALS sample, or Mayan languages
Mayan languages
The Mayan languages form a language family spoken in Mesoamerica and northern Central America. Mayan languages are spoken by at least 6 million indigenous Maya, primarily in Guatemala, Mexico, Belize and Honduras...
represented by Tzutujil
Tz'utujil language
Tz'utujil is a Mayan language spoken by the Tz'utujil people in the region to the south of Lake Atitlán in Guatemala. Tz'utujil is closely related to its larger neighbors, Kaqchikel and K'iche'....
in the WALS sample), but not all Athabaskan languages
Athabaskan languages
Athabaskan or Athabascan is a large group of indigenous peoples of North America, located in two main Southern and Northern groups in western North America, and of their language family...
have it. Slavey
Slavey language
Slavey is an Athabaskan language spoken among the Slavey First Nations of Canada in the Northwest Territories where it also has official status....
does not have obligatory possession but Navajo
Navajo language
Navajo or Navaho is an Athabaskan language spoken in the southwestern United States. It is geographically and linguistically one of the Southern Athabaskan languages .Navajo has more speakers than any other Native American language north of the...
does. Obligatory possession is also present in the language isolate
Language isolate
A language isolate, in the absolute sense, is a natural language with no demonstrable genealogical relationship with other languages; that is, one that has not been demonstrated to descend from an ancestor common with any other language. They are in effect language families consisting of a single...
Haida
Haida language
The Haida language is the language of the Haida people. It contains seven vowels and well over 30 consonants.-History:The first documented contact between the Haida and Europeans was in 1774, on Juan Pérez's exploratory voyage. At this time Haidas inhabited the Queen Charlotte Islands, Dall...
.
Obligatory possession is sometimes called inalienable possession
Inalienable possession
In linguistics, inalienable possession refers to the linguistic properties of certain nouns or nominal morphemes based on the fact that they are always possessed. The semantic underpinning is that entities like body parts and relatives do not exist apart from a possessor. For example, a hand...
. Inalienable possession
Inalienable possession
In linguistics, inalienable possession refers to the linguistic properties of certain nouns or nominal morphemes based on the fact that they are always possessed. The semantic underpinning is that entities like body parts and relatives do not exist apart from a possessor. For example, a hand...
is a semantic notion, i.e., largely dependent on the way a culture structures the world, while obligatory possession is a property of morphemes. In general, nouns with the property of requiring obligatorily possession are notionally inalienably possessed, but the fit is rarely, if ever perfect.