Possession and ownership : a cross-linguistic typology / edited by Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald and R.M.W. Dixon.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Linguists and anthropologists explore the intriguing variety of possessive phrases denoting ownership of property, whole-part relations (such as body and plant parts), and blood and affinal kinship relations across a wide range of languages.

Possession and ownership: a cross-linguistic perspective / Alexandra Y. Aikhenvale. Preamble ; Meanings and forms in possessive noun phrases ; Beyond a noun phrase: possession within a clause ; Possessive marking in its further uses ; Possession and language contact ; Possession in grammar and society ; Possession and owndership: what can we conclude? -- Owndership, part-whole, and other possessive-associative relations in Nelemwa (New Caldonia / Isabelle Bril. General characteristics of Nelemwa ; Possessive constructions with animates ; Part-whole and other relations with inanimate determiners ; Possessive determination of nominalizations ; Relational determination of quantifiers ; Possession within a clause: possessive predication ; To conclude -- Possession in Moskona, an East Bird's Head language / Gloria J. Gravelle. Possession in Moskona ; The Moskona language ; Core types of possessive relationships ; Possession in noun phrases ; Possession expressed by a clause ; External possession ; Possession and language contact ; Possession in society -- Possession and ownership in Manambu, a Ndu langugage from the Sepik area, Papua New Guinea / Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald. The Manambu and their possessions ; The Manambus language: a typological snapshot ; Meanings and forms of possessive noun phrases ; Possession within a clause ; Intangible possessions: clans, totems, and names ; Possession in grammar and society -- Possession in Martuthunira / Alan Dench. Meaning and forms of nominal possessive constructions ; Kindship relations ; Part-whole ; Verbal coding of possession ; Cultural patterns -- Possession in Nanti / Lev Michael. Sociolinguistic and typological background ; Possession the the noun phrase ; Possession in the verb phrase ; Possession-like constructions: part-whole classifier constructions ; Culture contact and possession -- Possession and association in Galo language and culture / Mark W. Post. Possession in the noun phrase: the genitive ; Predicative possession ; Possession and ownership in Galo culture ; Possession or association? an evolutionary perspective -- Possessive constructions in Mandarin Chinese / Yongxian Luo. Possessive constructions and possessive making in Chinese ; Possessive, classifiers, demonstratives, and definiteness ; Possession within the clause ; Possession in morpho-syntax, lexicon, and society -- Possession in Hone / Anne Storch. Nominal possession ; Predicative possession -- Possessive constructions in Likpe / Felix K. Ameka. Likpe: the language and its speakers ; Nominal possessive constructions ; Predicative possessive constructions ; Contact and areal dimensions ; Concluding remarks -- Possession in Wandala / Zygmunt Frajzyngier. Relational modification ; Modification of non-relational constituents ; Modification of relational nouns ; Nominal modification of relational nouns ; Definiteness of the head with the third-person pronoun ; Possessive predication ; Possessive interpretations of existential predications -- Spirits of the forest, the wind, and new wealth: defining some of the possibilities, and limits, of Kamula possession / Michael Wood. Some mainly Melanesian arguments about possession ; Possession, spirits, and sources ; The Kamula and their language ; Person, place, and possession ; Fathers ; Aiyalma and edging toward exclusive possession ; Climate change, clean wind, and oil as theft -- Being and beloning: exchange, value, and land owndership in the Western Highlands of Papula New Guinea / Rosita Henry. Temboka ; Principles of social organization and land tenure in the Nebilyer Valley ; Linguistic dimensions of possession and ownership ; The 'Segmentary Person' ; Thye Ganiga and their neighbour, Joe Leahy -- Possession and also owndership -- vignettes / R.M.W. Dixon. Comitative and privative used for predicative possession ; Possessor as head of an inalienable construction ; What can be possessed, and owned -- Index of authors -- Index of languages, language families, linguistic areas, and ethic groups -- Index of subjects.