Possession Construction

Definition

In Halkomelem, noun possessors can be related to noun heads in one of two possible ways: (1) the noun head takes the possessive –s and is followed by the possessor with its own article or (2) the noun head, without the possessive –s is followed by an optional oblique particle ʔə, the oblique article ƛ̓, and the possessor noun. (Suttles, 2003, pp. 83-84)

In Skwxwu7mesh, possessives are used to indicate who something belongs to. (Squamish Nation Education Department, 2011, p. 28) Nominalized clauses have possessive agreement for the subject of both transitive and intransitive clauses where the possessive affix is attached to whatever part of the verb phrase is nominalized. (Jacobs, 2013, p. 23)

Examples

Example in the Halkomelem Context of the Possessive Paradigm (Suttles, 2003, p. 83)

Example in the Halkomelem Context of Possessive Constructions for léləm̓ (Suttles, 2004, p. 325)

Example in the Skwxwu7mesh Context of the Possessive Paradigm for Nominal Clauses (Jacobs, 2013, p. 23)

References

Jacobs, P. W. (2013). Subordinate clauses in Skwxwu7mesh: Their form and function. Northwest Journal of Linguistics, 7(2), 1-54.

Squamish Nation Education Department. (2011). Skwxwú7mesh sníchim-xwelíten sníchim skexwts: Squamish-English dictionary. University of Washington Press & Squamish Nation Education Department. SFU Student Access.

Suttles, W. (2004). Musqueum reference grammar. UBC Press. SFU Student Access.