Possessors as Subjects and Objects: Different Ways of Possessors Act as Subject and Object Arguments on Verbs in the Languages of Papua

Abstract

This paper surveys a morpho-syntactic construction in which the possessors of possessive morphology on nouns are used to index subject and object arguments on verbs in some languages in Papua. Naturally, possessive morphology treats person markers as possessors in ownership or any kinds of relations such as my book, his house and my friend in English. Thus, the possessor marker in this construction is restricted to the nominal possessive construction. In some languages in Papua, the possessor of the possessive morphology is not just restricted to the nominal possessive construction possessors. It may also act as subject and object markers on verbs. This survey found that possessors acting as subject markers are common among Austronesian languages such as Wooi Sawaki [1], Biak Heuvel [2] and Mofu [3], Wamensa/Wandamen Gasser [4], and Matbat (Remijsen 2010). As for Papuan languages such as Yali Sawaki [5], Lower Grand Valley Dani (Bromley [6], Sawaki [5]), Hatam (Reesink [7]), Yaben (Sawaki [8]), the possessor marker can function as subject and/or object on verbs. The survey found out that only certain verb classes can take the possessor as subject and/or object markers. Both Papuan and Austronesian languages tend to have the possessor-subject on the inner-psychological or cognitive verbs. Further, Papuan languages also operate the possessor as the object agreement on transitive verb constructions. In summary, the possessor that is mainly restricted semantically to nominal possessive constructions extends its semantic and morpho syntactic function to the subject and/or object arguments on verbal constructions in Austronesian and Papuan languages in Papua