Possession, in the context of linguistics, is an asymmetric relationship between two constituents, the referent of one of which (the possessor) possesses (owns, rules over, has as a part, has as a relative, etc.) the referent of the other. Linguistics is the scientific study of language. ... In general, a reference is something that refers or points to something else, or acts as a connection or a link between two things. ...

Possession may be marked in many ways, such as simple juxtaposition of nouns, a possessive case, a construct state (for example, see Arabic grammar: state), or adpositions (possessive suffixes, possessive adjectives). For example, English uses a possessive clitic ('s) and a preposition, of. Look up juxtaposition in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Possessive case is a case that exists in some languages used for possession. ... The status constructus or construct state is a remarkable grammatical feature occurring in Semitic languages (such as Arabic and Hebrew) and in the extinct Egyptian language. ... Arabic is a Semitic language. ... In grammar, an adposition is any of a wide variety of particles and affixes which are attached to a noun phrase (their object) in order to modify the noun phrase or show its relation to another concept or situation in the same clause. ... The possessive suffix is an feature unique to Finno-Ugric languages. ... Headline text hjvhwhatsgm,Possessive adjectives modify nouns. ... In linguistics, a clitic is an element that has some of the properties of an independent word and some more typical of a bound morpheme. ... The Saxon genitive is the traditional term used for the s word-ending in the English language. ...

Alienable and inalienable

There are many types of possession, but a common distinction is alienable versus inalienable possession. Alienability refers to the ability to dissociate something from its parent — in this case, a quality from its owner.

When something is inalienably possessed, it is usually an attribute: for example, John's big nose is inalienably possessed, because it cannot (without surgery) be removed from John — it's simply a quality he has. In contrast, 'my briefcase' is alienably possessed — it can be separated from me.

Many languages make this distinction in some way. Saying something like 'I have my dad's big nose' with the latter noun-phrase marked inalienable would imply some sort of genetic inheritance; marked alienable, it would imply that you had cut off your father's nose or somesuch and were actually in physical possession of it. English does not have a grammatical feature to make such distinctions.

Possessive pronouns in Hawaiian are associated with nouns distinguishing between o-class, a-class and neutral pronouns according to the relationship of possessor and possessed. O-class possessive pronouns are used if the possessive relationship cannot be begun or ended by the possessor. The Hawaiian language is an Austronesian language that takes its name from that of the largest island in the tropical North Pacific archipelago where it developed. ...

Inherent and non-inherent

Another distinction, which is similar to alienable vs. inalienable possession, is inherent vs. non-inherent possession. In languages that mark this distinction, inherently possessed nouns, e.g., body parts, cannot be mentioned without also mentioning the possessor. So, you cannot say just 'a hand', but must also explicitly say whose hand it is. Several Papuan languages, for instance Mangga Buang, combine alienable/inalienable and inherent/non-inherent marking. The term Papuan languages refers to those languages of the western Pacific which are neither Austronesian nor Australian. ...

Possessable and unpossessable

Many languages, such as the Maasai language, distinguish between the possessable and the unpossessable. Possessable things include farm animals, tools, houses, family members and money, while for instance wild animals, landscape features and weather phenomena cannot be possessed. Basically this means that, in such languages, saying 'my brother' is okay, but 'my land' would be grammatically incorrect. Instead, one would have to use a circumlocution such as 'the land that I own'. Maasai is an Eastern Nilotic language spoken in Southern Kenya and Northern Tanzania by the Maasai people, numbering about 900,000. ...

Animate and inanimate

In some languages, different possession verbs ("have" in English) are used depending on whether the object is animate or inanimate. Compare the two examples in Georgian:

Kompiuteri makvs ("I have a computer")

Dzaghli mqavs ("I have a dog")

Since dog is an animate, and computer is not, different verbs are used. However some nouns in Georgian (such as car) are considered animate, and, therefore, employ the same verb as any other animate objects.

References

Heine, Bernd (1997) Possession: Cognitive Sources, Forces, and Grammaticalization. Cambridge University Press.(ISBN-13: 9780521024136 | ISBN-10: 0521024137)