In:Possession in Languages of Europe and North and Central Asia:
Edited by Lars Johanson, Lidia Federica Mazzitelli and Irina Nevskaya
[Studies in Language Companion Series 206] 2019
► pp. 239–266
Possession in Khinalug
Published online: 5 March 2019
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.206.12rin
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.206.12rin
The article describes the functions and the usage of the genitive in Khinalug, a Nakh-Dagestanian language spoken in the North-East of Azerbaijan. Khinalug stands out for its tripartite genitive system with two subsystems: (a) a possessee-based subsystem, which distinguishes alienability versus certain types of inalienability according to the degree of bondedness towards the possessee; only animate possessors can take an inalienably marked possessee. (b) a possessor-based subsystem, which distinguishes alienability versus family-relatedness according to the bondedness among the members of the possessor group towards each other: They have to be in a family relationship to justify the use of this genitive. Moreover, independently from animacy, the alienable and the inalienable genitive are governed by a range of postpositions.
Article outline
- Introduction
- 1.Some notes on the typology of genitives and the position of Khinalug
- 2.The genitives
- 2.1Phonetic restrictions to the alienable genitive suffix
- 2.2Some notes on the family-related genitive pronouns
- 3.The use of the genitives in the semantic subgroups of possession-related noun phrases
- 3.1Body parts
- 3.2Part-whole-relationships
- 3.3Material
- 3.4Things emanating from the possessor
- 3.5Physical states and processes
- 3.6Mental states and processes
- 3.7Attributes of the possessor
- 3.8Kinship
- 4.Case government of postpositions
- 5.Conclusion and hypotheses
Abbreviations Notes References
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