The roots and structures of possessive noun classes

Abstract

In both the typological literature and literature on formal syntax and semantics, a division is drawn between nouns that are inalienably possessed such as body parts and kinship terms and nouns that are alienably possessed such as owned materials. In this paper I re-examine data from Spanish and Mayan languages and propose an analysis of it that emphasizes two important points regarding the roots and structures associated with inalienable and alienable possession. I first make the novel observation that various types of external possession in Spanish provide clear support for the idea that  inalienable possession is structurally less complex than alienable possession: inalienable possessive relations are introduced within a complex n head that consists of a root and nominalizing head. I then explore attributive possession in Mayan languages and highlight data that leads to conflicting conclusions about where, precisely, inalienable relations such as part-of and kin-of are encoded: on n heads or on roots. I outline avenues for future research with the Mayan language family that may help elucidate which of these two analyses may ultimately be correct.