Knowledge base · Part VII — Possession and the Affiliative System · this topic as a network
46. Adnominal Possession: Double Marking and the Appositive Construction
How does the language mark adnominal possession within a noun phrase?
The two possessive constructions
What are the two main constructions for adnominal possession and how do they relate to alienability?
Ainu lacks genitive case marking for expressing possession (Bugaeva, Nichols & Bickel 2022, Shibatani 1990: 36). The possessive constructions that exist are typologically typical and are fully accounted for by the cross-linguistic framework of nominal argument structure, valence, and appositive possession (Bugaeva, Nichols & Bickel 2022). Bugaeva proposes that Ainu may be interpreted as a remnant of an earlier, larger group of North Asian Circum-Pacific languages with appositive possession, the others having been absorbed by expansions of Tungusic, Japonic, Korean, Sinitic, and Austronesian (proposed in Bugaeva, Nichols & Bickel 2022). Possessive expressions corresponding to Japanese 'Noun1 no Noun2' take three types of constructions: (1) N1 kor N2, (2) N1 N2 with an affiliative form, and (3) juxtaposition of two concept-form nouns (Nakagawa 2024: 217). In constructions (1) and (2), Noun1 can be replaced by a transitive-subject personal prefix such as ku=, whereas in construction (3) this substitution is not possible (Nakagawa 2024: 218). The nominal possessive expression takes the form of the possessor noun followed by the possessive, or affiliative, form of the possessed noun, and the genitive precedes the head noun (Shibatani 1990: 36, 22).
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Personal possessive prefixes on inalienable nouns
How are personal possessive prefixes used on inalienable nouns and what do they index?
The third-person possessor prefix is zero, so a possessed noun form standing alone by default means 'his/her/its …' (Bugaeva, Nichols & Bickel 2022). A noun in its affiliative person form, such as siki, indexes the possessor internally and can stand alone to express a possessed meaning, making an independent possessor noun phrase grammatically optional (Satō 2008: 156).
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Overt possessor NPs and the double-marking configuration
How is an overt possessor noun phrase expressed and what marking does it receive?
The affiliative form of a noun indexes the person and number of the possessor via the A-series, that is transitive-subject, cross-reference prefixes such as ku=, ci=, e=, eci=, and a= (Bugaeva 2014, Bugaeva, Nichols & Bickel 2022, Nakagawa 2022: 14.4). The nominal possessive expression takes the form of the possessor noun followed by the affiliative form of the possessed noun (Shibatani 1990: 36). Expressions consisting of a pronoun or noun plus a personal form of a noun do not strictly form a single tight noun phrase corresponding to Japanese 'A no B'; rather, the bond between A and B is weak (Satō 2008: 157), and other syntactic elements such as particles can intervene between the possessor noun phrase and the possessed noun (Satō 2008: 156). Because using genitive pronouns is mechanically simpler than forming concrete forms for each noun, the genitive construction expanded and led to double-marking expressions such as akor amachihi 'my wife' (Kindaichi & Chiri 1936). By analogy from kor mat = kor machihi, forms such as akor machihi or ekor machihi have begun to appear even among Ainu speakers, though traditional elders strictly avoid this (Kindaichi & Chiri 1936).
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Nested possession
How does the language handle nested possession where a possessor is itself a possessed noun?
Inalienable and alienable possessive constructions can combine into larger syntactic structures (Bugaeva, Nichols & Bickel 2022).
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The kor appositive construction
How does the language express possession of alienable nouns using the verb 'kor'?
Ainu has an appositive classifier system that uses verbs (Bugaeva, Nichols & Bickel 2022). In the alienable possessive construction, the possessor is coded not as a dependent within a noun phrase but as an argument in a finite clause, and the appositive word is a verb (Bugaeva, Nichols & Bickel 2022). Alienable nouns use a relative construction with kor 'have', in which the possessor is marked as the subject of kor and the possessed noun is the gapped object (Bugaeva, Nichols & Bickel 2022). The person markers used in this construction are unambiguously verbal person markers (Bugaeva, Nichols & Bickel 2022), and the appositive verb modifying the possessed noun is finite (Bugaeva, Nichols & Bickel 2022). Refsing, analysing Shizunai Ainu, asserts that kor functions as an attributive postposition when placed directly between two nouns or between a pronominal affix and a noun (Refsing 1986: 161), and reports that most expressions of possession in Shizunai Ainu are constructed with kor (Refsing 1986: 87); Satō similarly notes that kor is used as a marker expressing possession in Chitose Ainu (Satō 2008: 100). Bugaeva, by contrast, analyses the possessor in the kor construction as an argument of a finite verb, not as a dependent in a noun phrase (Bugaeva, Nichols & Bickel 2022), a position that contrasts with Refsing's postpositional analysis (Refsing 1986: 161). Kindaichi and Chiri assert that kor can only be used to express possession when the possessor has personhood (Kindaichi & Chiri 1936, Shibatani 1990: 36), a restriction that differs in scope from Bugaeva's account of the construction (Bugaeva, Nichols & Bickel 2022). The genitive relation of personal pronouns can also be expressed by kor with an appropriate personal affix followed by the possessed noun (Shibatani 1990: 36). When the possessor is third person, kor lacks overt person marking and tends to form a single phonological unit with the following possessum head noun, preceded by a pause after the possessor noun phrase (Bugaeva, Nichols & Bickel 2022). The predicate kor can optionally be marked for verbal plurality (Bugaeva, Nichols & Bickel 2022), perfectivity (Bugaeva, Nichols & Bickel 2022), or mirativity (Bugaeva, Nichols & Bickel 2022), and can take adverbial modifiers (Bugaeva, Nichols & Bickel 2022). The kor construction with human nouns and human attributes is used with high frequency in Saru Ainu partly due to an extended affective function expressing affection (reported in Bugaeva, Nichols & Bickel 2022). Ainu is described as having a one-classifier verbal appositive possessive system (Bugaeva, Nichols & Bickel 2022), with kor as the sole classifier (Bugaeva, Nichols & Bickel 2022), though Bugaeva also characterises the verbal appositives as a small system of one or two verbs meaning 'own' or 'have' (Bugaeva, Nichols & Bickel 2022). The several possessive classifiers of earlier Ainu have shrunk to just one in the modern variety (Bugaeva, Nichols & Bickel 2022). In oral literature, a number of transitive verbs other than kor functioned as possessive classifiers specifying the type of possessive relation in prenominal relative clauses (Bugaeva, Nichols & Bickel 2022): un 'attach to, belong' in expressions like a-un cise 'my house' (Bugaeva, Nichols & Bickel 2022), mut 'wear (a sword)' in expressions like a-mut emusi 'my sword' (Bugaeva, Nichols & Bickel 2022), an-te (causative of an 'exist') in e-an-te hoku 'your husband' (Bugaeva, Nichols & Bickel 2022), hekote 'be married to' with spouse and family terms (Bugaeva, Nichols & Bickel 2022), and mi 'wear' in expressions like a-mi kosonde 'my kimono' (Bugaeva, Nichols & Bickel 2022). In older Ainu, larger appositive classifier systems added subdivisions of food by preparation type, clothing, instruments and objects by function, fire and fire-related things, houses, and various items by history of acquisition (Bugaeva, Nichols & Bickel 2022). A larger verbal classifier system is reconstructible for earlier Ainu, in which classifiers relate to the history and cultural status of possession (Bugaeva, Nichols & Bickel 2022), and Bugaeva proposes that when Ainu was still the daily language of a large speech community it had multiple alienable class constructions (proposed in Bugaeva, Nichols & Bickel 2022).
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