A possessive or ktetic form (
abbreviated
An abbreviation (from Latin ''brevis'', meaning ''short'') is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method. It may consist of a group of letters or words taken from the full version of the word or phrase; for example, the word ''abbrevia ...
or ; from la, possessivus; grc, κτητικός, translit=ktētikós) is a word or grammatical construction used to indicate a relationship of
possession
Possession may refer to:
Law
* Dependent territory, an area of land over which another country exercises sovereignty, but which does not have the full right of participation in that country's governance
* Drug possession, a crime
* Ownership
* ...
in a broad sense. This can include strict
ownership
Ownership is the state or fact of legal possession and control over property, which may be any asset, tangible or intangible. Ownership can involve multiple rights, collectively referred to as title, which may be separated and held by different ...
, or a number of other types of relation to a greater or lesser degree analogous to it.
Most European languages feature possessive forms associated with
personal pronoun
Personal pronouns are pronouns that are associated primarily with a particular grammatical person – first person (as ''I''), second person (as ''you''), or third person (as ''he'', ''she'', ''it'', ''they''). Personal pronouns may also take dif ...
s, like the
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
''my'', ''mine'', ''your'', ''yours'', ''his'' and so on. There are two main ways in which these can be used (and a
variety of terminologies for each):
* Together with a
noun
A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for:
* Living creatures (including people, alive, d ...
, as in ''my car'', ''your sisters'', ''his boss''. Here the possessive form serves as a ''
possessive determiner''.
* Without an accompanying noun, as in ''mine is red'', ''I prefer yours'', ''this book is his''. A possessive used in this way is called a ''substantive possessive pronoun'', a possessive pronoun or an ''absolute pronoun''.
Some languages, including English, also have possessive forms derived from nouns or
noun phrase
In linguistics, a noun phrase, or nominal (phrase), is a phrase that has a noun or pronoun as its head or performs the same grammatical function as a noun. Noun phrases are very common cross-linguistically, and they may be the most frequently oc ...
s, such as ''Jane's'', ''cows' '' and ''nobody else's''. These can be used in the same two ways as the pronoun-derived forms: ''Jane's office'' or ''that one is Jane's''.
Possessives are sometimes regarded as a
grammatical case
A grammatical case is a category of nouns and noun modifiers (determiners, adjectives, participles, and Numeral (linguistics), numerals), which corresponds to one or more potential grammatical functions for a nominal group in a wording. In vari ...
(the ''possessive case''), although they are also sometimes considered to represent the
genitive case
In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can al ...
, or are not assigned to any case, depending on which language is being considered. On the other hand, some languages, such as the
Cariban languages
The Cariban languages are a family of languages indigenous to northeastern South America. They are widespread across northernmost South America, from the mouth of the Amazon River to the Colombian Andes, and they are also spoken in small pocke ...
, can be said to have a ''possessed case'', used to indicate the other party (the thing possessed) in a possession relationship. A similar feature found in some languages is the
possessive affix
In linguistics, a possessive affix (from la, affixum possessivum) is an affix (usually suffix or prefix) attached to a noun to indicate its possessor, much in the manner of possessive adjectives.
Possessive affixes are found in many language ...
, usually a suffix, added to the (possessed) noun to indicate the possessor, as in the
Finnish
Finnish may refer to:
* Something or someone from, or related to Finland
* Culture of Finland
* Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland
* Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people
* Finnish cuisine
See also ...
''taloni'' ("my house"), where ''talo'' means "house" and the suffix ''-ni'' means "my".
The concepts of possessive forms and
genitive forms are sometimes conflated, although they are not exactly the same. The genitive form, which does not exist in modern English as a productive inflection outside of pronouns (
see below), represents an ''of'' relationship, which may or may not be possessive; in other words, the possessive is a subset of genitive. For example, the genitive form "speed of the car" is equivalent to the possessive form "the car's speed". However, the genitive form "pack of dogs" is not the same as the possessive form "dogs' pack" (though it is the same as "dog pack", which is not possessive).
Formation
From pronouns
It is common for languages to have independent
possessive determiners and possessive
pronoun
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun (abbreviated ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase.
Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the parts of speech, but some modern theorists would not co ...
s corresponding to the
personal pronoun
Personal pronouns are pronouns that are associated primarily with a particular grammatical person – first person (as ''I''), second person (as ''you''), or third person (as ''he'', ''she'', ''it'', ''they''). Personal pronouns may also take dif ...
s of the language. For example, to the
English personal pronouns
The English personal pronouns are a subset of English pronouns taking various forms according to grammatical number, number, grammatical person, person, grammatical case, case and natural gender. Modern English has very little inflection of nouns ...
''I'', ''you'', ''he'', ''she'', ''it'', ''we'', ''they'', there correspond the respective possessive determiners ''my'', ''your'', ''his'', ''her'', ''its'', ''our'' and ''their'', and the (substantival) possessive pronouns ''mine'', ''yours'', ''his'', ''hers'', ''its'' (rare), ''ours'' and ''theirs''. In some instances there is no difference in form between the determiner and the pronoun; examples include the English ''his'' (and ''its''), and informal
Finnish
Finnish may refer to:
* Something or someone from, or related to Finland
* Culture of Finland
* Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland
* Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people
* Finnish cuisine
See also ...
''meidän'' (meaning either "our" or "ours").
In some languages, possessive determiners are subject to
agreement Agreement may refer to:
Agreements between people and organizations
* Gentlemen's agreement, not enforceable by law
* Trade agreement, between countries
* Consensus, a decision-making process
* Contract, enforceable in a court of law
** Meeting o ...
with the noun they modify, and possessive pronouns may be subject to agreement with their
antecedent, in terms of relevant categories of
gender
Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures u ...
,
number
A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers c ...
and
case. For example,
French has ''mon'', ''ma'', ''mes'', respectively the masculine singular, feminine singular and plural forms corresponding to the English ''my'', as well as the various possessive pronoun forms ''le mien'', ''la mienne'', ''les mien(ne)s'' corresponding to English ''mine''.
Since personal pronouns may also agree in number and gender with their own antecedent or
referent
A referent () is a person or thing to which a name – a linguistic expression or other symbol – refers. For example, in the sentence ''Mary saw me'', the referent of the word ''Mary'' is the particular person called Mary who is being spoken of, ...
, the possessive forms may consequently show agreement with either the "possessor" or the "possessed", or both. In French (and most other
Romance languages
The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language fam ...
) the third-person singular possessives do not indicate the gender of the possessor, instead they agree with the possessed (''son'', ''sa'' and ''ses'' can all mean either "his", "her" or "its"). In
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
the number is always indicated but the gender is only indicated for possessive pronouns, not possessive determiners; ''mi padre, mi madre, mis hermanos, mis hermanas'' (my father, my mother, my brothers, my sisters), but ''mío, mía, míos, mías'' when used as "mine" to refer to the previous. This contrasts with English and standard
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
, where the form of the possessives (''his'', ''her'', ''its''; ''zijn'', ''haar'') indicates the grammatical or
natural gender
In linguistics, grammatical gender system is a specific form of noun class system, where nouns are assigned with gender categories that are often not related to their real-world qualities. In languages with grammatical gender, most or all nouns ...
of the possessor, but does not depend on properties of the possessed. Additionally,
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
and several
Dutch dialects
Dutch dialects are primarily the dialects that are both cognate with the Dutch language and are spoken in the same language area as the Dutch standard language. Dutch dialects are remarkably diverse and are found in the Netherlands and norther ...
additionally inflect their possessives, thus giving agreement with both possessor and possessed; German has ''sein'' and ''ihr'' meaning "his" and "her" respectively, but these inflect to give (for example) feminine forms like ''seine'' and ''ihre'', depending on the gender (and number and case) of the thing possessed.
In languages that have a
genitive case
In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can al ...
, the possessive forms corresponding to pronouns may or may not resemble the genitive of those pronouns. For example, in
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
, the genitive of я ''ja'' "I" is меня ''menya'' ("of me"), whereas the corresponding possessive is мой ''moy'' ("my, mine", in masculine singular nominative form). In
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
the two sets of forms are quite similar (for example, the genitive of ''ich'' "I" is ''meiner'', the corresponding possessive pronoun is also ''meiner'' in the masculine singular nominative, and the possessive determiner is ''mein'' with various endings).
Some languages have no distinct possessive determiners as such, instead using a pronoun together with a ''possessive particle'' – a
grammatical particle
In grammar, the term ''particle'' (abbreviated ) has a traditional meaning, as a part of speech that cannot be inflected, and a modern meaning, as a function word associated with another word or phrase, generally in order to impart meaning. Altho ...
used to indicate possession. For example, in
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
, "my" or "mine" can be expressed as ''watashi no'', where ''watashi'' means "I" and ''no'' is the possessive particle. Similarly in
Mandarin Chinese
Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language of ...
, "my" or "mine" is ''wǒ de'', where ''wǒ'' means "I" and ''de'' is the possessive particle.
An alternative to the pronominal possessive determiner, found in some languages, including
Finnish
Finnish may refer to:
* Something or someone from, or related to Finland
* Culture of Finland
* Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland
* Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people
* Finnish cuisine
See also ...
and
Hungarian, is the
possessive affix
In linguistics, a possessive affix (from la, affixum possessivum) is an affix (usually suffix or prefix) attached to a noun to indicate its possessor, much in the manner of possessive adjectives.
Possessive affixes are found in many language ...
, usually a suffix, attached to the noun denoting the thing possessed. For example, in Finnish the suffix ''-ni'' means "my", producing forms such as ''taloni'' ("my house"), from ''talo'' ("house"). Hungarian possessive suffixes are used in a similar way, as in ''háza'' ("his/her house"), formed from ''ház'' ("house"). In Hungarian this affix can also be used when the possessor is represented by a full noun, as described in the next section.
Pronouns other than personal pronouns, if they have possessive forms, are likely to form them in a similar way to nouns (see below). In English, for example, possessive forms derived from other pronouns include ''one's'', ''somebody's'' and ''nobody's''. There is however a distinct form ''whose'' for the possessive of the
interrogative
An interrogative clause is a clause whose form is typically associated with question-like meanings. For instance, the English sentence "Is Hannah sick?" has interrogative syntax which distinguishes it from its declarative counterpart "Hannah is ...
and
relative pronoun
A relative pronoun is a pronoun that marks a relative clause. It serves the purpose of conjoining modifying information about an antecedent referent.
An example is the word ''which'' in the sentence "This is the house which Jack built." Here the ...
''who''; other languages may have similarly functioning words, such as the Russian чей ''chey'' ("whose?"). Another possessive found in Russian and other
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic, spoken during the Ear ...
is the reflexive possessive, corresponding to the general
reflexive pronoun
A reflexive pronoun is a pronoun that refers to another noun or pronoun (its antecedent) within the same sentence.
In the English language specifically, a reflexive pronoun will end in ''-self'' or ''-selves'', and refer to a previously n ...
; the Russian form is свой ''svoj'' (meaning "one's (own)", "my (own)", etc.).
From nouns
In some languages, possessives are formed from nouns or
noun phrase
In linguistics, a noun phrase, or nominal (phrase), is a phrase that has a noun or pronoun as its head or performs the same grammatical function as a noun. Noun phrases are very common cross-linguistically, and they may be the most frequently oc ...
s. In English, this is done using the ending ''-'s'', as in ''Jane's'', ''heaven's'', ''the boy's'', ''those men's'', or sometimes just an apostrophe, as in ''workers','' ''Jesus','' ''the soldiers'.'' Note that the ending can be added at the end of a noun phrase even when the phrase does not end with its
head
A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple animals may ...
noun, as in ''the king of England's''; this property inclines many linguists towards the view that the ending is a
clitic
In morphology and syntax, a clitic (, backformed from Greek "leaning" or "enclitic"Crystal, David. ''A First Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics''. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1980. Print.) is a morpheme that has syntactic characteristics of a w ...
rather than a
case ending
A grammatical case is a category of nouns and noun modifiers (determiners, adjectives, participles, and numerals), which corresponds to one or more potential grammatical functions for a nominal group in a wording. In various languages, nomina ...
(see
below, and further at
English possessive).
In languages that have a genitive case, the genitive form of a noun may sometimes be used as a possessive (as in German ''Karls Haus'' "Karl's house"). Languages such as Japanese and Chinese form possessive constructions with nouns using possessive particles, in the same way as described for pronouns above. An example from Japanese is ''neko no iro'' ("the cat's color"), where ''neko'' means "cat", ''no'' is the particle, and ''iro'' means "color".
In other languages, noun possessives must be formed
periphrastically, as in French ''
la plume de ma tante
' is a 1955 musical comedy, written, devised, and directed by Robert Dhéry, with music by Gérard Calvi, and English lyrics by Ross Parker. The play consisted of a number of short sketches in English, French, and pantomime, satirizing French ...
'' ("my aunt's pen", literally "the pen of my aunt"). In
Hungarian, the construction ''Mária háza'' is used ("Maria's house", literally "Maria her house", where the final ''-a'' in ''háza'' is the
possessive suffix
In linguistics, a possessive affix (from la, affixum possessivum) is an affix (usually suffix or prefix) attached to a noun to indicate its possessor, much in the manner of possessive adjectives.
Possessive affixes are found in many languages o ...
meaning "her"). The possessor noun can carry an additional
dative
In grammar, the dative case (abbreviated , or sometimes when it is a core argument) is a grammatical case used in some languages to indicate the recipient or beneficiary of an action, as in "Maria Jacobo potum dedit", Latin for "Maria gave Jacob a ...
marker, in which case an
article
Article often refers to:
* Article (grammar), a grammatical element used to indicate definiteness or indefiniteness
* Article (publishing), a piece of nonfictional prose that is an independent part of a publication
Article may also refer to:
G ...
appears before the noun. For example, "Peter's house" may be translated either as ''Péter háza'' (literally "Peter his-house"), or ''Péternek a háza'' ("of-Peter the his-house").
Syntax
Possessive determiners are used in combination with a noun, playing the role of a
determiner
A determiner, also called determinative (abbreviated ), is a word, phrase, or affix that occurs together with a noun or noun phrase and generally serves to express the reference of that noun or noun phrase in the context. That is, a determiner m ...
or
attributive adjective
In linguistics, an adjective (abbreviated ) is a word that generally modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun.
Traditionally, adjectives were considered one of the mai ...
. In English and some other languages, the use of such a word implies the
definite article
An article is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases. The category of articles constitutes a part of speech.
In English, both "the" and "a(n)" ar ...
. For example, ''my car'' implies ''the car that belongs to me'' or ''is used by me''; it is not correct to precede possessives with an article (*''the my car'') or other definite determiner such as a
demonstrative
Demonstratives (abbreviated ) are words, such as ''this'' and ''that'', used to indicate which entities are being referred to and to distinguish those entities from others. They are typically deictic; their meaning depending on a particular frame ...
(*''this my car''), although they can combine with quantifiers in the same ways that ''the'' can (''all my cars'', ''my three cars'', etc.; see
English determiners
English determiners (also known as determinatives)
are words – such as ''the'', ''a'', ''each'', ''some'', ''which'', ''this'', and ''six'' – that are most commonly used with nouns to specify their referents. The determiners form a closed ...
). This is not the case in all languages; for example in
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
the possessive is usually preceded by another determiner such as an article, as in ''la mia macchina'' ("my car", literally "the my car") or ''quel tuo libro'' ("that book of yours", literally "that your book").
Some languages place the possessive after the noun, as in
Norwegian
Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to:
*Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe
* Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway
* Demographics of Norway
*The Norwegian language, including ...
''boka mi'' ("my book"). Here again the equivalent of the definite article – in this case the definite ending ''-a'' on the noun ''bok'' – is used in addition to the possessive. However, the forms ''min bok'' or ''mi bok'', where the noun ''bok'' is in the indefinite form, are equally correct.
Possessive determiners may be modified with an
adverb An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, adjective, another adverb, determiner, clause, preposition, or sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, level of certainty, etc., answering ...
, as adjectives are, although not as freely or as commonly as is the case with adjectives. Such modification is generally limited to such adverbs as ''more'', ''less'', or ''as much ... as'' (
comparative
In general linguistics, the comparative is a syntactic construction that serves to express a comparison between two (or more) entities or groups of entities in quality or degree - see also comparison (grammar) for an overview of comparison, as wel ...
) or ''mostly'' (
superlative), for example in ''This is more my team than your team'' and ''This is mostly my team''.
Substantival possessive pronouns are used on their own and cannot be used to describe a noun, playing the role of
noun phrase
In linguistics, a noun phrase, or nominal (phrase), is a phrase that has a noun or pronoun as its head or performs the same grammatical function as a noun. Noun phrases are very common cross-linguistically, and they may be the most frequently oc ...
s, so ''mine'' may stand for "my cat", "my sister", "my things", etc. In some languages these may require articles or other determiners, as the French ''le mien'' etc. In English, the ''-'s'' possessives formed from nouns or noun phrases can be used in the same way; ''the president's'' may stand for "the president's office", "the president's policies", etc., as determined by the context.
A related use is that of the
predicative expression
A predicative expression (or just predicative) is part of a clause predicate, and is an expression that typically follows a copula (or linking verb), e.g. ''be'', ''seem'', ''appear'', or that appears as a second complement of a certain type of v ...
, as in sentences like ''the book is mine''. Here ''mine'' may be considered to be a
predicate adjective (like ''red'' in ''the book is red'') rather than a pronoun; in English, however, the same possessive form is used anyway. Other languages may use differing forms; for example French may use ''...est à moi'' for "...is mine".
A particular use of possessive pronouns (and equivalent noun forms) in English is that illustrated in phrases like ''a friend of mine'' and ''that coat of Fred's'', used to form possessive expressions when the desired determiner is something other than the default ''the'' implied in the usual possessive determiner.
Terminology
The terminology used for possessive words and phrases is not consistent among all
grammar
In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structure, structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clause (linguistics), clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraint ...
ians and
linguists
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
.
What some authors refer to as ''possessives'', others may call ''genitives'', and vice versa. Nowadays, however, the term ''
genitive
In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can al ...
'' is most commonly used in relation to languages with a developed
case system (in which the "genitive case" often has a wider range of functions than merely forming possessives), while in languages like English, where their status as a grammatical case is doubtful, such words are usually called possessives rather than genitives. A given language may have distinct genitive and possessive forms, as in the example of Russian given above. (The English possessive in ''-'s'' is sometimes called the ''
Saxon genitive
In English, possessive words or phrases exist for nouns and most pronouns, as well as some noun phrases. These can play the roles of determiners (also called possessive adjectives when corresponding to a pronoun) or of nouns.
For nouns, noun ph ...
''; this alludes to its derivation from the genitive case that existed in
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
. It may also be called the ''prenominal genitive''; this also applies to analogous forms in languages such as German.)
Words like the English ''my'' and ''your'' have
traditionally
A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays o ...
been called ''possessive adjectives''. However, modern linguists note that in a language such as English they behave like
determiner
A determiner, also called determinative (abbreviated ), is a word, phrase, or affix that occurs together with a noun or noun phrase and generally serves to express the reference of that noun or noun phrase in the context. That is, a determiner m ...
s rather than true
adjective
In linguistics, an adjective (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that generally grammatical modifier, modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun.
Tra ...
s (see examples in the section above), and thus prefer the term ''possessive determiner''. In some other languages, however, the equivalent words behave more like true adjectives (compare the Italian example above, for instance).
While for most authors the term ''possessive pronoun'' is reserved (as in this article) for possessives like ''mine'' and ''yours'' which do not qualify an explicit noun, the term is sometimes taken also to include other possessive forms that correspond to pronouns, even though they behave as determiners, qualifying a noun, such as ''my'' and ''your''.
Some authors who classify both sets of words as ''possessive pronouns'' or ''genitive pronouns'' apply the terms ''dependent/independent'' or ''weak/strong'' to refer, respectively, to ''my'', ''your'', etc. and ''mine'', ''yours'', etc. Thus ''my'' is termed a ''dependent'' (or ''weak'') ''possessive pronoun'', while ''mine'' is an ''independent'' (or ''strong'') ''possessive pronoun''. Also, the first set may be called ''adjectival'' and the second set ''substantival'' possessive pronouns.
According to the ''
OED
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a co ...
'', the first reference to possessive pronouns is found in 1530; the first use of ''possessive'' as a noun occurs in 1591, the first use of ''possessive case'' (which notes that it is like the Latin genitive, and may be called the genitive case in reference to English also) occurs in 1763, and the first use of ''possessive adjective'' dates from 1870.
Since la, possessivus has its equivalent in grc, κτητικός (ktētikós), in linguistic terminology possessives are also referred to as ktetics, particularly in reference to ktetic (possessive) adjectives, and other ktetic (possessive) forms, including names derived from ktetics (ktetic personal names).
Possessive and possessed case
Nouns or pronouns taking the form of a possessive are sometimes described as being in the ''possessive case''. A more commonly used term in describing the grammar of various languages is ''
genitive case
In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can al ...
'', but that usually denotes a case with a broader range of functions than just producing possessive forms. (Some languages occasionally use the
dative case
In grammar, the dative case (abbreviated , or sometimes when it is a core argument) is a grammatical case used in some languages to indicate the recipient or beneficiary of an action, as in "Maria Jacobo potum dedit", Latin for "Maria gave Jacob a ...
to denote the possessor, as in the
Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and ...
''kosa mu je gusta'' "his hair is thick" (literally "the hair to him is thick" in which "to him" is the dative pronoun ''mu'').)
Other theorists reject the idea that the possessive in languages like English as represents a
grammatical case
A grammatical case is a category of nouns and noun modifiers (determiners, adjectives, participles, and Numeral (linguistics), numerals), which corresponds to one or more potential grammatical functions for a nominal group in a wording. In vari ...
since possessive forms do not generally behave in a parallel fashion to what are normally identified as cases. In particular, in English, as noted above, the ''-'s'' can attach to noun phrases even when they do not end with their head noun, as in ''the king of Spain's'', which is not typical behavior for a case ending. For further discussion of the issue, see .
Some languages, such as the
Cariban languages
The Cariban languages are a family of languages indigenous to northeastern South America. They are widespread across northernmost South America, from the mouth of the Amazon River to the Colombian Andes, and they are also spoken in small pocke ...
can be said to have a ''possessed case'' to indicate the other party (the thing possessed) in a possession relationship.
["On reconstructing grammar: comparative Cariban morphosyntax", by Spike Gildea, , 1998]
p. 104
/ref> In many Afro-Asiatic languages, such as Arabic, nouns take a form with similar significance called the construct state
In Afro-Asiatic languages, the first noun in a genitive phrase of a possessed noun followed by a possessor noun often takes on a special morphological form, which is termed the construct state (Latin ''status constructus''). For example, in Arabi ...
, sometimes even if the possessor is marked in the genitive case. Classical Nahuatl
Classical Nahuatl (also known simply as Aztec or Nahuatl) is any of the variants of Nahuatl spoken in the Valley of Mexico and central Mexico as a ''lingua franca'' at the time of the 16th-century Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. During the s ...
similarly presents an inflected possessed form (or case) in nouns, which contrasts with a non-possessed form (the absolutive).
Semantics
The relationship expressed by possessive determiners and similar forms is not necessarily one of possession in the strict sense of ownership
Ownership is the state or fact of legal possession and control over property, which may be any asset, tangible or intangible. Ownership can involve multiple rights, collectively referred to as title, which may be separated and held by different ...
. In English, strict possession has been found to be expressed in only about 40% of the situations labeled as "possessive" by linguists, a fact which may incline some to prefer the more traditional term "genitive
In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can al ...
". The "possessor" may be, for example:
*the person or thing to which the "possessed" stands in the designated relationship (''my mother'', ''his wife'', ''your subordinates'', ''our boss'');
*the person or thing of which the "possessed" is a part (''my leg'', ''the building's walls'');
*a person or thing affiliated with or identifying with the "possessed" (''his country'', ''our class'', ''my people'');
*the performer, or sometimes the undergoer, of an action (''his arrival'', ''the government's overthrow'')
*the creator, supervisor, user, etc. of the "possessed" (''Prince's album'', ''the Irish jockey's horse'').
For more examples, see Possession (linguistics)
In linguistics, possession is an asymmetric relationship between two constituents, the referent of one of which (the possessor) in some sense possesses (owns, has as a part, rules over, etc.) the referent of the other (the possessed).
Possessio ...
and .
See also
*Construct state
In Afro-Asiatic languages, the first noun in a genitive phrase of a possessed noun followed by a possessor noun often takes on a special morphological form, which is termed the construct state (Latin ''status constructus''). For example, in Arabi ...
*Genitive construction
In grammar, a genitive construction or genitival construction is a type of grammatical construction used to express a relation between two nouns such as the possession of one by another (e.g. "John's jacket"), or some other type of connection ( ...
*Possessive antecedent In English grammar, a pronoun has a possessive antecedent if its antecedent (the noun that it refers to) appears in the possessive case; for example, in the following sentence, ''Winston Churchill'' is a possessive antecedent, serving as it does as ...
* Possessive determiner
References
Sources
*
Further reading
*Biber, Douglas, ''et al.'' (1999) ''Longman Grammar of Spoken English.'' Harlow, Essex: Longman. .
*Jespersen, Otto. (1949) ''A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles.'' Part 2 (''Syntax,'' vol. 1). Copenhagen: Munksgaard; London: George Allen and Unwin.
*Payne, John, and Rodney Huddleston. (2002) "Nouns and Noun Phrases." Chap. 5 of Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey K. Pullum. ''The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language.'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. .
*Quirk, Randolph, ''et al.'' (1985) ''A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language.'' Harlow, Essex: Longman. .
{{lexical categories, state=collapsed
Grammar
Grammatical cases
Genitive construction
Pronouns