GREENLANDIC (WEST)
SUMMARY
Possessors can participate in switch-reference (SR) such that a same-subject (SS) marker, an aspectual marker in West Greenlandic, tracks the identity of the possessor of one subject and another subject, or the identity of possessors across two disjoint subjects. Different third person referents in possession are indexed by regular third person possessive affixes and reflexive possessive affixes.
See also Aleut.
LANGUAGE PROFILE
ISO 639-3:
kal
WALS ID:
grw
LOCATION:
Greenland
CO-ORDINATES:
64°N, 51°W
AFFILIATION:
Eskimo-Aleut, Eskimo
EVIDENCE IN SUPPORT OF PIPS
- Possession is marked directly on the possessed noun through person and number marking of the possessor.
- When also expressed by an NP, internal possessors have relative case-marking independently of the possessed noun's grammatical function, indicating dependency within the noun phrase.
KEY SOURCES
Fortescue, Michael. 1984. West Greenlandic. London: Croom Helm.
Fortescue, Michael. 1991. Switch reference anomalies and ‘topic’ in West Greenlandic, in J. Verscheuren (ed.), Levels of linguistic adaptation, 53-80. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
