Johnson 2004 - CDLI - UCLA

. larkee-kee paas kuttaa hai
boy.Obl-Gen proximity dog Cop.3Sg.Pres
The boy has a dog, lit. by the boy is a dog
c. baccee-kee daat safeed hai
child.Obl-Gen teeth white Cop.3Pl
The child has white teeth, lit. the child’s white teeth are
As I have argued previously, the BNBV inal construction seems, therefore, to consist of
two, overlapping possessive constructions: an inalienably possessed theme lugal.e igi
“the king’s eye” and a theme gig.e igi “perception of wheat, lit. an eye to the wheat” with
raised possessor, as if the two Hindi sentences in (48b) and (48c) could occur as a single
clause. Freeze goes on to note (using the term “subject” in a rather special sense where it
refers to either the possessor or the locative) that “[t]here is a tendency for [+ human]
subjects to occur in expressions interpreted as ‘have’ constructions, while [– human]
subjects are found in expressions interpreted as existentials” (Freeze 1992, 584). This is
precisely the state of affairs in the BNBV inal construction.
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