Possessive suffix
Encyclopedia
In linguistics
, a possessive affix is a suffix
or prefix
attached to a noun to indicate its possessor
, much in the manner of possessive adjective
s. Possessive suffixes are found in some Uralic
, Altaic
, Semitic
, and Indo-European languages
. Complicated systems are found in the Uralic languages
; for example, Nenets has 27 (3×3×3) different forms to distinguish the possessor (first, second, third person
), the number
of possessors (singular, dual, plural) and the number of objects (singular, dual, plural). This allows Nenets speakers to express the phrase "many houses of us two" in one word.
is one language that uses possessive suffixes. The number of possessors and their person can be distinguished for the singular and plural, except for the third person. However, the construction hides the number of possessed objects when the singular objects are in nominative
or genitive case
and plural objects in nominative case; käteni may mean either "my hand" (subject or direct object), "of my hand" (genitive) or "my hands" (subject or direct object). For example, the following are the forms of talo (house), declined to show possession:
The grammatical case
s are not affected by the possessive suffix, except for the accusative case
(-n or unmarked), which is left unmarked by anything but the possessive suffix. The third-person suffix is used only if the possessor is the subject. For example, Mari maalasi talonsa "Mari painted her house", cf. the use of the genitive case
in Toni maalasi Marin talon "Toni painted Mari's house". (The -n on the word talon is the accusative case
homophonic to the genitive case.)
For emphasis or clarification, the possessor can be given outside the word as well, using the genitive case
. In this case, the possessive suffix remains. For example, my house can be taloni or minun taloni, where minun is the genitive form of the first-person singular pronoun.
Omission of the possessive suffix makes it possible to distinguish the plural for the possessed objects, although this is not considered proper language; e.g. mun käsi "my hand" vs. mun kädet "my hands". Systematic omission of possessive suffixes is found in spoken Finnish
, wherever a pronoun in the genitive is used. However, this is found only in direct address, e.g. "Their coats are dry" is Niiden takit on kuivia (niiden lit. "they's"). Contrast this with indirect possession, as in "They took their coats", where the possessive suffix is used: Ne otti takkinsa. Even in proper Finnish, the pronouns sen and niiden, (which are the demonstrative as well as inanimate forms of hänen and heidän,) do not impose possessive suffixes except indirectly – it would be hypercorrect
to ever say niiden talonsa. There is also a distinction in meaning in the third person depending on whether or not the third person possessive pronoun is used:
is another Uralic language, distantly related to Finnish
. It follows approximately the same rules as given above for Finnish, except that it has no genitive case
. So, to say (for example), "Maria's house," one would say Mária háza (where háza means "her/his/its house").
, a Semitic language, uses personal suffixes, also classified as enclitic pronouns, for the genitive
and accusative case
s of the personal pronoun
s. The genitive and accusative forms are identical, except for the 1st person singular, which is -ī in genitive and -nī in accusative case. They can be used with noun
s, expressing possession, with prepositions, which require the genitive case, or with verb
s, expressing the object
. Examples for personal suffixes expressing possession, using the word بيت bayt(u) (house) as a base:
, another Semitic language, possessive suffixes are optional; they are more common in formal, archaic, or poetic language, and they are also more common on certain nouns than on others. The following are some different ways to express possession, using the word bayit (house) as a base:
, which is an Indo-European
language, possessive suffixes are found:
e.g. pedar-am my father; barâdar-aš his/her brother
's use of possessive suffixes mirrors that of many other Afro-Asiatic languages
.
Independent possessives are formed by attaching the possessive suffixes to /wi-/ (if the object possessed is masculine) or /ti-/' (for feminine), e.g. /winw/ ('mine').
Not all pronouns are added in this way; most are written as separate words. For example, your country can also be written as negara anda or negara engkau, and our country as negara kita (if the reader is included) or negara kami (if the reader is excluded).
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....
, a possessive affix is a suffix
Suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs...
or prefix
Prefix
A prefix is an affix which is placed before the root of a word. Particularly in the study of languages,a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the words to which it is affixed.Examples of prefixes:...
attached to a noun to indicate its possessor
Possession (linguistics)
Possession, in the context of linguistics, is an asymmetric relationship between two constituents, the referent of one of which possesses the referent of the other ....
, much in the manner of possessive adjective
Possessive adjective
Possessive adjectives, also known as possessive determiners, are a part of speech that modifies a noun by attributing possession to someone or something...
s. Possessive suffixes are found in some Uralic
Uralic languages
The Uralic languages constitute a language family of some three dozen languages spoken by approximately 25 million people. The healthiest Uralic languages in terms of the number of native speakers are Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian, Mari and Udmurt...
, Altaic
Altaic languages
Altaic is a proposed language family that includes the Turkic, Mongolic, Tungusic, and Japonic language families and the Korean language isolate. These languages are spoken in a wide arc stretching from northeast Asia through Central Asia to Anatolia and eastern Europe...
, Semitic
Semitic languages
The Semitic languages are a group of related languages whose living representatives are spoken by more than 270 million people across much of the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa...
, and Indo-European languages
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...
. Complicated systems are found in the Uralic languages
Uralic languages
The Uralic languages constitute a language family of some three dozen languages spoken by approximately 25 million people. The healthiest Uralic languages in terms of the number of native speakers are Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian, Mari and Udmurt...
; for example, Nenets has 27 (3×3×3) different forms to distinguish the possessor (first, second, third person
Grammatical person
Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
), the number
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
of possessors (singular, dual, plural) and the number of objects (singular, dual, plural). This allows Nenets speakers to express the phrase "many houses of us two" in one word.
Finnish
FinnishFinnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
is one language that uses possessive suffixes. The number of possessors and their person can be distinguished for the singular and plural, except for the third person. However, the construction hides the number of possessed objects when the singular objects are in nominative
Nominative case
The nominative case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or the predicate noun or predicate adjective, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments...
or genitive case
Genitive case
In grammar, genitive is the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun...
and plural objects in nominative case; käteni may mean either "my hand" (subject or direct object), "of my hand" (genitive) or "my hands" (subject or direct object). For example, the following are the forms of talo (house), declined to show possession:
| person Grammatical person Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns... | number Grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions .... | Finnish word | English phrase |
|---|---|---|---|
| first-person | singular | taloni | my house(s) |
| plural | talomme | our house(s) | |
| second-person | singular | talosi | your (sing.) house(s) |
| plural | talonne | your (pl.) house(s) | |
| third-person | talonsa | his/her/their house(s) | |
The grammatical case
Grammatical case
In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun is an inflectional form that indicates its grammatical function in a phrase, clause, or sentence. For example, a pronoun may play the role of subject , of direct object , or of possessor...
s are not affected by the possessive suffix, except for the accusative case
Accusative case
The accusative case of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. The same case is used in many languages for the objects of prepositions...
(-n or unmarked), which is left unmarked by anything but the possessive suffix. The third-person suffix is used only if the possessor is the subject. For example, Mari maalasi talonsa "Mari painted her house", cf. the use of the genitive case
Genitive case
In grammar, genitive is the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun...
in Toni maalasi Marin talon "Toni painted Mari's house". (The -n on the word talon is the accusative case
Accusative case
The accusative case of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. The same case is used in many languages for the objects of prepositions...
homophonic to the genitive case.)
For emphasis or clarification, the possessor can be given outside the word as well, using the genitive case
Genitive case
In grammar, genitive is the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun...
. In this case, the possessive suffix remains. For example, my house can be taloni or minun taloni, where minun is the genitive form of the first-person singular pronoun.
Omission of the possessive suffix makes it possible to distinguish the plural for the possessed objects, although this is not considered proper language; e.g. mun käsi "my hand" vs. mun kädet "my hands". Systematic omission of possessive suffixes is found in spoken Finnish
Spoken Finnish
Colloquial Finnish is the "dialectless" colloquial standard of the Finnish language. It is spoken in the Greater Helsinki region, and in urbanized areas in the Tavastian and Central Finland dialectal areas, such as the cities of Jyväskylä, Lahti, Hyvinkää, and Hämeenlinna...
, wherever a pronoun in the genitive is used. However, this is found only in direct address, e.g. "Their coats are dry" is Niiden takit on kuivia (niiden lit. "they's"). Contrast this with indirect possession, as in "They took their coats", where the possessive suffix is used: Ne otti takkinsa. Even in proper Finnish, the pronouns sen and niiden, (which are the demonstrative as well as inanimate forms of hänen and heidän,) do not impose possessive suffixes except indirectly – it would be hypercorrect
Hypercorrection
In linguistics or usage, hypercorrection is a non-standard usage that results from the over-application of a perceived rule of grammar or a usage prescription...
to ever say niiden talonsa. There is also a distinction in meaning in the third person depending on whether or not the third person possessive pronoun is used:
- He ottivat (omat) takkinsa. = "They took their (own) coats." (The possessor cannot be mentioned, even for emphasis, when it the same as the subject.)
- He ottivat heidän takkinsa. = "They took their (others') coats." (When a third person pronoun is mentioned as the possessor, it must refer to someone other than the subject of the sentence.)
Hungarian
HungarianHungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
is another Uralic language, distantly related to Finnish
Finnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
. It follows approximately the same rules as given above for Finnish, except that it has no genitive case
Genitive case
In grammar, genitive is the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun...
. So, to say (for example), "Maria's house," one would say Mária háza (where háza means "her/his/its house").
- See also Possessive suffixes in the article Hungarian grammar (noun phrases).
Arabic
ArabicArabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
, a Semitic language, uses personal suffixes, also classified as enclitic pronouns, for the genitive
Genitive case
In grammar, genitive is the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun...
and accusative case
Accusative case
The accusative case of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. The same case is used in many languages for the objects of prepositions...
s of the personal pronoun
Personal pronoun
Personal pronouns are pronouns used as substitutes for proper or common nouns. All known languages contain personal pronouns.- English personal pronouns :English in common use today has seven personal pronouns:*first-person singular...
s. The genitive and accusative forms are identical, except for the 1st person singular, which is -ī in genitive and -nī in accusative case. They can be used with noun
Noun
In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
s, expressing possession, with prepositions, which require the genitive case, or with verb
Verb
A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...
s, expressing the object
Object (grammar)
An object in grammar is part of a sentence, and often part of the predicate. It denotes somebody or something involved in the subject's "performance" of the verb. Basically, it is what or whom the verb is acting upon...
. Examples for personal suffixes expressing possession, using the word بيت bayt(u) (house) as a base:
| person Grammatical person Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns... | singular Grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions .... | dual | plural Plural In linguistics, plurality or [a] plural is a concept of quantity representing a value of more-than-one. Typically applied to nouns, a plural word or marker is used to distinguish a value other than the default quantity of a noun, which is typically one... |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | بيتي baytī my house | – | بيتنا baytunā our house |
| 2nd person (masc.) | بيتك baytuka your house | بيتكما baytukumā your (du.) house | بيتكم baytukum your house |
| 2nd person (fem.) | بيتك baytuki your house | بيتكن baytukunna your house | |
| 3rd person (masc.) | بيته baytuhu his house | بيتهما baytuhumā their (du.) house | بيتهم baytuhum their house |
| 3rd person (fem.) | بيتها baytuhā her house | بيتهن baytuhunna their house |
Hebrew
In HebrewHebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
, another Semitic language, possessive suffixes are optional; they are more common in formal, archaic, or poetic language, and they are also more common on certain nouns than on others. The following are some different ways to express possession, using the word bayit (house) as a base:
- my house: beiti (house-my), ha-bayit sheli (the-house of-me)
- your (masc.Grammatical genderGrammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
, sing.) house: beitkha (house-your), ha-bayit shelkha (the-house of-you) - Adam's house: beit Adam (house-of Adam), beito shel Adam (house-his of Adam), ha-bayit shel Adam (the-house of Adam)
Persian
In PersianPersian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
, which is an Indo-European
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...
language, possessive suffixes are found:
| person Grammatical person Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns... | Suffix |
|---|---|
| 1st person singular | -am |
| 2nd person singular | -at |
| 3rd person singular | -aš |
| 1st person plural | -emân |
| 2nd person plural | -etân |
| 3rd person plural | -ešân |
e.g. pedar-am my father; barâdar-aš his/her brother
Tamazight
Central Morocco TamazightCentral Morocco Tamazight
Central Atlas Tamazight is a Berber languageCentral Atlas Tamazight may be referred to as either a Berber language or a Berber dialect...
's use of possessive suffixes mirrors that of many other Afro-Asiatic languages
Afro-Asiatic languages
The Afroasiatic languages , also known as Hamito-Semitic, constitute one of the world's largest language families, with about 375 living languages...
.
| Person | Possessive suffix |
|
|---|---|---|
| (Ayt Ayache) | (Ayt Seghrouchen) | |
| I | /-(i)nw/1 | |
| you (ms) | /-nʃ/ | /-nːs/ |
| you (fs) | /-nːm/ | |
| he | /-ns/ | /-nːs/ |
| she | ||
| we | /-nːɣ/ | /-nːx/ |
| you (mp) | /-nːun/ | |
| you (fp) | /-nːkʷnt/ | /-nːʃnt/ |
| they (m) | /-nsn/ | /-nːsn/ |
| they (f) | /-nsnt/ | /-nːsnt/ |
- -inw is used when the noun ends in a consonant
Independent possessives are formed by attaching the possessive suffixes to /wi-/ (if the object possessed is masculine) or /ti-/' (for feminine), e.g. /winw/ ('mine').
Turkish
| person Grammatical person Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns... | singular Grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions .... | plural Plural In linguistics, plurality or [a] plural is a concept of quantity representing a value of more-than-one. Typically applied to nouns, a plural word or marker is used to distinguish a value other than the default quantity of a noun, which is typically one... |
|---|---|---|
| 1st person | evim my house | evimiz our house |
| 2nd person | evin your house | eviniz your house |
| 3rd person | evi his/her house | evleri their house |
Bahasa Melayu
In the Malay language (Bahasa Melayu), the following suffixes can be added to nouns to indicate possession.| Person Grammatical person Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns... | Example | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| 1st person | negaraku Negaraku "Negaraku" is the national anthem of Malaysia. "Negaraku" was selected as a national anthem at the time of the Federation of Malaya's independence from Britain in 1957. The tune was originally used as the state anthem of Perak, which was adopted from a popular French melody titled "La Rosalie"... (contraction of negara aku) |
my country |
| 2nd person | negaramu (contraction of negara kamu) | your country |
| 3rd person | negaranya | his/her country |
Not all pronouns are added in this way; most are written as separate words. For example, your country can also be written as negara anda or negara engkau, and our country as negara kita (if the reader is included) or negara kami (if the reader is excluded).