The ways of expressing attributive possession in Ket: possessive syntactic constructions

The paper analyzes the structural models of Ket possessive constructions. The means of expressing possessive construction components and the ways of marking possessive relations between the first possessive construction component denoting the subject of possession (a possessor) and the second component indicating the object of possession (a possessum) are considered. The study is based on the conception proposed by E. Vajda, according to which the possessive markers are possessive pronominal clitics, used as either clitics or proclitics, depending on the context. Two-component and multiple-component constructions are identified. The two-component constructions contain a possessor, a possessum, and a linking marker, the semantic scope of which is a possessum. The non-expanded and expanded possessive constructions are analyzed. Both the first and the second substantive component of the two-component construction may be expanded by an attribute. The two-component constructions having a possessor expanded by an attribute are characterized by a distant ordering of a possessor noun and a possessum noun, including distant positions of a possessive proclitic and a possessum noun. The derivative processes of transforming possessive constructions are considered. The rising derivation process consists of embedding one more possessor into the construction with an original possessor. Both possessors are marked by appropriate possessive pronominal clitics. It is found that in Ket, the recessive derivation of omitting a possessor noun expressed by a personal pronoun stem is available as well, resulting in a construction with a non-expressed (omitted) possessor. The corresponding possessive pronominal clitic attaching proclitically to possessum noun is overtly retained at the surface morphosyntactic level.

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