Inalienable possession : an aspect of the syntax of personal reference in Swahili
In a group of constructions in Swahili, the person ('possessor') and a part of the body or other thing intimately connected with them ('property') feature as two independent arguments of the verb rather than as components of a single noun phrase. The privileged treatment of parts of the body has been described in the literature as 'inalienable possession', and the verbal expression of the relationship as 'possessor raising'. Previous treatments of the phenomenon in Swahili have concentrated on transitive constructions in which the possessor and property are respectively direct and oblique objects (She grasped him [by the] shoulder), and to a lesser extent on 'intransitive constructions' in which possessor and property are respectively subject and object (She was swollen eyes). The more common construction in which the property features as subject (Eyes were swollen [for] her) has been largely overlooked. Also considered are the 'auto-referential' constructions in which there is an implicit relationship between agent/possessor as subject and property as object (He washed [his] hands). We refer to these constructions collectively as 'affective'. The dissertation takes a corpus of four Swahili novels by coastal
Kyei-Mensah, Josephine
Linguistics
Inalienable possession : an aspect of the syntax of personal reference in Swahili. In a group of constructions in Swahili, the person ('possessor') and a part of the body or other thing intimately connected with them ('property') feature as two independent arguments of the verb rather than as components of a single noun phrase. The privileged treatment of parts of the body has been described in the literature as 'inalienable possession', and the verbal expression of the relationship as 'possessor raising'. Previous treatments of the phenomenon in Swahili have concentrated on transitive constructions in which the possessor and property are respectively direct and oblique objects (She grasped him [by the] shoulder), and to a lesser extent on 'intransitive constructions' in which possessor and property are respectively subject and object (She was swollen eyes). The more common construction in which the property features as subject (Eyes were swollen [for] her) has been largely overlooked. Also considered are the 'auto-referential' constructions in which there is an implicit relationship between agent/possessor as subject and property as object (He washed [his] hands). We refer to these constructions collectively as 'affective'. The dissertation takes a corpus of four Swahili novels by coastal
possession aspect syntax personal reference swahili group construction swahili person part body thing intimately connect property feature two_independent argument verb rather component single noun_phrase privilege treatment part body describe literature possession verbal expression relationship raise previous treatment phenomenon swahili concentrate transitive construction property respectively direct oblique object grasp shoulder less_extent intransitive construction property respectively subject_object eye common construction property feature subject largely_overlook also_consider auto referential construction implicit relationship agent subject property object hand refer construction collectively affective take corpus swahili novel coastal