Susanne Borgwaldt 1 & John Newman 2 1 Technical University Braunschweig 2 University of Alberta In Search of Possession: From Concept to Inflection

Body part morphemes in Dene Sułine

Body part morphemes In some languages, body part morphemes are bound morphemes. Body parts constitute “inherent” possession. Payne, T. E. (1997). Describing morphosyntax: A guide for field linguists. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 105

Body part words & words for clothing in English What are the patterns of usage in English concerning these words and their human “possessors”?

“Possession” There is a range of meanings associated with this word. We distinguish 4 ways to understand possession applied to persons and their body parts.

Possession “Conceptual” The possessor referent is identifiable within the sentence containing the possessee: Tom was shot in the leg. The bullet went into Tom’s leg. I could see the leg of a man under the table. The bullet was in his leg.

Possession “Grammatical modification” the possessor referent appears as some kind of modifying element within the possessee NP (with results for all types aggregrated): my friend’s leg(s) AND the leg(s) of my friend AND her leg(s)

Possession “Specific morphological class” the possessor referent appears as a particular possessive type within the NP (with results for each type kept distinct): my friend’s leg(s) OR the leg(s) of my friend OR her/their leg(s)

Possession “Inflectional” the possessor referent in a particular number/ person category appears as a possessive determiner with a possessee: my leg OR my legs OR his leg OR his legs

Corpora MultiSemCor ( relatively small (258,499 tokens in 116 texts) written only (subset of BROWN) POS tagged and semantically tagged BNC (accessed through BNCWeb) relatively large (100 million tokens) built-in stats spoken and written POS tagged, but not semantically tagged

Body parts and clothes in MultiSemCor Body part words 52 types and 966 tokens Clothes words and personal belongings (watch, glasses) 46 types and 177 tokens for clothes

MultiSemCor

“Conceptual” possession in MultiSemcor Tom was shot in the leg. The bullet went into Tom’s leg. I could see the leg of a man under the table. The bullet was in his leg. Body Parts Clothes n.s.

“Conceptual” possession in MultiSemcor Body Parts Clothes n.s. Kim had a hat on. Kim’s hat was cute. The hat of Kim was cute. Her hat was cute.

“Grammatical modification in NP” in MultiSemcor my friend’s leg the leg of my friend her leg Body Parts Clothes Tom was hit in the leg

“Grammatical modification in NP” in MultiSemcor my friend’s cap the cap of my friend her cap Body Parts Clothes Chi-square = 20.65, p ≤0.001 Tom had a cap on

Conceptual vs. linguistic distance Inalienable possession tends to be reflected in closer linguistic distance between possessor and the possessed NP-Possessor Alienable possession tends to be reflected in further linguistic distance between possessor and the possessed NP X Possessor Haiman, J. (1985). Natural Syntax: Iconicity and Erosion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Section 2.2. Croft, William. (1990). Typology and Universals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp

Conceptual vs. linguistic distance Hua (Papuan) inalienable possession r-vari ‘our-sweat’ Alienable possession rgai ʔ bodoʔ ‘your loincloth’ Haiman, J. (1985). Natural Syntax: Iconicity and Erosion. CFambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp

Conceptual vs. linguistic distance Hua categorical distinction between alienable and inalienable possession types (“hard constraint”) English distinct tendencies for alienable and inalienable possession types (“soft constraints”) are seen in the preferences for possessor outside of NP and inside NP

Possessives by % morphological class in MultiSemcor her leg my friend’s leg the leg of my friend Body Parts Clothes n.s. her cap my friend’s cap the cap of my friend

“Inflectional” possession in BNC We use the BNC to investigate a particular person/number possessor with a particular sg/pl possessed noun my leg his leg her leg

Singular/Plural in the BNC SINGULAR NOUN=NN1 in whole BNC PLURAL NOUN=NN2 in whole BNC house47,0879,134 garden10,3853,592 child/children23,66245,729 On markedness reversal see: Tiersma, P. (1982). Local and General Markedness. Language

BNC ‘head’ headFreqLLheadsFreqLL my my24.14 his his her her our363.30our their their

BNC ‘head’ headFreqLLheadsFreqLL my my24.14 his his her her our363.30our their their

BNC ‘mouth’ mouthFreqLLmouthsFreqLL my my his his her her our our their their

BNC ‘mouth’ mouthFreqLLmouthsFreqLL my my his his her her our our their their

BNC ‘finger’ fingerFreqLLfingersFreqLL my my his his her her our our their their

BNC ‘finger’ fingerFreqLLfingersFreqLL my my his his her her our our their their

BNC ‘eye’ eyeFreqLLeyesFreqLL my my his his her her our our their their

BNC ‘eye’ eyeFreqLLeyesFreqLL my my his his her her our our their their

BNC ‘leg’ legFreqLLlegsFreqLL my my his his her her our13.56our their161.57their

BNC ‘leg’ legFreqLLlegsFreqLL my my his his her her our13.56our their161.57their

BNC ‘foot’ footFreqLLfeetFreqLL my my his his her her our50.09our their their

BNC ‘foot’ footFreqLLfeetFreqLL my my his his her her our50.09our their their

handFreqLLhandsFreqLL my my his his her her our341.66our their their BNC ‘hand’

handFreqLLhandsFreqLL my my his his her her our341.66our their their BNC ‘hand’

Summary 1. Possessor in Sentence or not (conceptual possession) 2. Possessor in NP or outside of NP (grammatical possession) 3. Possessor is Poss Det./’s/of (possession by specific morphological class) 4. Poss Det (Person/Number) + N (Singular/Plural) (inflectional ppossession)

Summary 1. Possessor in Sentence or not (conceptual possession) Body parts = clothes 2. Possessor in NP or outside of NP (grammatical possession) 3. Possessor is Poss Det./’s/of (possession by specific morphological class) 4. Poss Det (Person/Number) + N (Singular/Plural) (inflectional ppossession)

Summary 1. Possessor in Sentence or not (conceptual possession) Body parts = clothes 2. Possessor in NP or outside of NP (grammatical possession) Body parts ≠ clothes 3. Possessor is Poss Det./’s/of (possession by specific morphological class) 4. Poss Det (Person/Number) + N (Singular/Plural) (inflectional ppossession)

Summary 1. Possessor in Sentence or not (conceptual possession) Body parts = clothes 2. Possessor in NP or outside of NP (grammatical possession) Body parts ≠ clothes 3. Possessor is Poss Det./’s/of (possession by specific morphological class) Body parts = clothes 4. Poss Det (Person/Number) + N (Singular/Plural) (inflectional ppossession)

Summary 1. Possessor in Sentence or not (conceptual possession) Body parts = clothes 2. Possessor in NP or outside of NP (grammatical possession) Body parts ≠ clothes 3. Possessor is Poss Det./’s/of (possession by specific morphological class) Body parts = clothes 4. Poss Det (Person/Number) + N (Singular/Plural) (inflectional ppossession) item by item

Conclusions We can understand “possession” in four different ways: from coarse-grained to fine- grained All four approaches to possession have their virtues Linguistic typology research can benefit from exploiting all four ways