Knowledge base · Part VII — Possession and the Affiliative System · this topic as a network

43. The Alienable/Inalienable Split and Possessive Classification

How does the language distinguish alienable from inalienable possession?

Two dimensions and three constructions

How is possession expressed without genitive case or possessive prepositions?

In Shizunai Ainu, the belonging form of nouns is used exclusively to express inalienable possession. (Refsing 1986: 81, 161) Inalienable nouns in Ainu are obligatorily possessed. (Bugaeva, Nichols & Bickel 2022) Ainu has an appositive possessive construction for alienable nouns, which are optionally possessed nouns. (Bugaeva, Nichols & Bickel 2022) Ainu nouns exhibit an alienability opposition. (Bugaeva 2022: 1.1) Ainu nominal grammar possesses bound inalienable nouns and non-possessible alienable nouns. (Bugaeva 2022: 1.5) Alienable possession is expressed with the pattern [possessor + kor + conceptual form], whereas inalienable possession is expressed with [possessor + affiliative form]. (Nakagawa 2022: 14.4) General nouns that can be inalienably possessed may appear with pronominal affixes to form the belonging form. (Refsing 1986: 75) Pronominal prefixes in the nominative case may attach to certain general nouns to express inalienable possession. (Refsing 1986: 79) Pronominal affixes in their nominative form can be prefixed to any noun capable of taking the belonging form, and a short verb phrase may intervene between the prefix and the noun. (Refsing 1986: 155)

The kor construction

How is alienable (transferable) possession marked?

Alienable nouns cannot take person marking directly and instead express possession via a pre-head relative clause headed by kor 'have'. (Bugaeva, Nichols & Bickel 2022, Bugaeva 2022: 1.5) The noun ku 'bow' does not take an affiliative form and is possessed only using ku-kor. (Satō 2008: 152) In Southern Hokkaido Ainu, alienable possession is encoded periphrastically by a relative clause construction using kor 'have' as the predicate with the possessor as the subject, while the possessee remains unmarked. (Bugaeva 2012: 478–479) Alienable nouns in Ainu cannot take person markers directly. (Bugaeva, Nichols & Bickel 2022) Although the kor relative clause possessive construction is grammatically possible with all non-possessible nouns, only 57 such nouns are attested with kor in Tamura's (1991) lexicon. (reported in Bugaeva, Nichols & Bickel 2022) The concept-form possessive construction (with kor) is used for alienable possession, where the existence of Noun2 is not contingent on Noun1. (Nakagawa 2024: 218) When the relationship is not one of inalienable possession, the genitive is expressed using attributive postpositions. (Refsing 1986: 81) Nouns such as káne 'money' cannot directly undergo personal inflection by taking personal affixes, but instead require a relative clause with the verb kor 'have' (e.g. ku-kor káne) to express possession. (Satō 2008: 150) Some kinship terms do not take affiliative forms and instead use ku-kor, such as ku-kor totto 'my mother' and ku-kor hāpo 'my father'. (Satō 2008: 152)

The affiliative construction

How is inalienable possession marked on the noun?

The noun kotan 'village' has an affiliative form kotan-u despite not being a body part. (Satō 2008: 152) Inalienable nouns in Ainu, chiefly body parts and kin terms, take direct affixation of possessive affixes. (Bugaeva, Nichols & Bickel 2022) Inalienable nouns in Ainu are obligatorily possessed and take head-marked person indexation. (Bugaeva, Nichols & Bickel 2022) The affiliative-form possessive construction is used for inalienable possession, where Noun2 cannot exist without Noun1. (Nakagawa 2024: 218) Items of clothing and footwear that are normally worn are treated like body parts and expressed in the affiliative form. (Nakagawa 2024: 219) Handheld tools and weapons that are carried on the person are expressed in the affiliative form, like items of clothing. (Nakagawa 2024: 219) Part-whole relations (such as spear handle, cradle strap, or plant seeds) are expressed using the affiliative-form construction. (Nakagawa 2024: 219) Raw material-to-product relationships (such as dishes or bamboo huts) can be expressed using the affiliative-form construction. (Nakagawa 2024: 220) Across dialects, there is a noun uncise 'someone's house' used mainly in verse, which is never used with kor and is always used in the affiliative form. (Nakagawa 2024: 221) The noun kaskamuy 'possessing spirit / guardian deity' takes an affiliative form and undergoes personal inflection just like body-part nouns. (Satō 2008: 151) In oral literature, alongside the regular form a-kotan-u 'my/our village', the construction a-kor kotan-u, which uses both kor and the affiliative form together, is also found. (Satō 2008: 152) Kinship terms often take affiliative forms like body parts (e.g. k-unuhu, k-onaha, k-ekasihi, ku-suci, ku-saha, ku-sapo, ku-yupihi, ku-yupo, k-akihi, ku-macirpe, ku-mátaki, ku-poho, ku-matnepoho, ku-mitpoho). (Satō 2008: 152)

Class membership: gradient and construal-sensitive

Which nouns are obligatorily possessed and how does class membership show gradience?

The noun ku 'bow' can take an affiliative form kuwehe due to traditional hunter-weapon worldview, while also permitting alienable kor possession. (Nakagawa 2024: 229) Provided appropriate semantic conditions are met, potentially every common noun can take an affiliative possessive form. (proposed in Nakagawa 2024: 230) In Shizunai Ainu, nouns that can take the belonging form are limited to a small closed class of around fifty items expressing inalienable possession. (Refsing 1986: 85) In Sakhalin Ainu, affiliative forms are standard for body parts and kin terms, frequent for instruments and buildings, but normally absent for natural phenomena and geographical features. (Tangiku 2022: 9.4) The noun kotan 'village' is used in both the concept-form construction and the affiliative-form construction with roughly equal frequency. (Nakagawa 2024: 220) In Southern Hokkaido Ainu, the head-marking possessive construction is restricted to inalienable possession. (Bugaeva 2012: 478–479) Definite possessors are most likely to trigger the morphological possessive construction on the head noun. (Bugaeva 2012: 478–479) Only inalienable nouns—typically body parts and their extensions, kinship terms, and relational nouns—can be used in the proper possessive construction. (Bugaeva, Nichols & Bickel 2022) The noun mosir 'land, world' is used only in the concept-form possessive construction in prose, although the affiliative form mosiri occasionally appears in verse. (Nakagawa 2024: 220) In the prose of Saru, Chitose, and Horobetsu, cise 'house' never takes the affiliative form in the sense of 'someone's house', but it can do so in verse, and in other dialects it frequently takes the affiliative form even in prose. (Nakagawa 2024: 220) Almost all words for parts of the body have a belonging form. (Refsing 1986: 85) Except in situations where a body part is mentioned in a general sense, the belonging form will be used for body parts. (Refsing 1986: 85) In the category of abstract parts of the body, only kewtum 'mind, heart, personality', haw 'voice', and ruye 'track, footprints' appear in the Shizunai material. (Refsing 1986: 87) The noun kewtum does not always appear in the belonging form where it might be expected, such that ku kewtum is as acceptable as ku kewtumu(hu). (Refsing 1986: 87) The noun haw always appears in the belonging form when it is clear to whom the voice belongs. (Refsing 1986: 87) Many kinship terms in the Shizunai dialect lack a belonging form. (Refsing 1986: 87) A few kinship terms can appear either in the belonging form or in construction with an attributive postposition. (Refsing 1986: 87) Common nouns that inflect for person are generally inalienable entities such as body parts, or items conceptually assimilated to them such as blood, mind/heart, guardian spirit, and clothing. (Satō 2008: 151)

Analytical perspectives

What is the debated formal condition that triggers the affiliative form?

Unlike Hokkaido Ainu, where some nouns do not take possessed forms for ordinary possession, almost all nouns take possessed forms in Sakhalin Ainu. (Nakagawa 2024: 110) In Ainu alienable possession, the verb 'have' appears to be the survivor of a formerly larger set of verbs with classificatory functions. (proposed in Bugaeva, Nichols & Bickel 2022)