Variation and Change in the Romance Possessive Constructions: an Overview of Nominal, Adverbial and Verbal Uses1
Variation and change in the Romance possessive constructions: An overview of nominal, adverbial and verbal uses1 MIRIAM BOUZOUITA Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin MATTI MARTTINEN LARSSON Stockholm University Abstract In this introductory article, we will first illustrate the great morpho-syntactic diversity that exists in the Romance possessive systems from a comparative perspective, and then detail the recent changes that have taken place. After discussing the various nominal patterns, the use of tonic possessives in the adverbial and verbal domain will be examined. Subsequently, the various contributions of this special issue will be summarized and evaluated. Keywords: Romance, possessive, noun, prepositional phrase, adverbial, verbal, analogical extension, reanalysis 1. Introduction Despite having a common ancestor, there are important morpho-syntactic differences between the various Romance possessive systems.2 While some possessives behave like adjectives, others function like determiners, and yet others as pronouns (e.g. Lyons 1985; Schoorlemmer 1998; GLA 2001:108; Ledgeway 2011; Van Peteghem 2012; De Andrés Díaz 2013:375, among others). Indeed, while Latin possessives are strong forms with a distribution similar to that of lexical adjectives, various divergent systems exist in the Romance languages (e.g. Van Peteghem 2012). To illustrate the great (morpho-)syntactic diversity that exists in the Romance possessive systems and the different recent changes that have taken place, we will give a broad comparative overview of the various possessive configurations in the nominal, adverbial and verbal domains (sections 1.1 and 1.2), detailing similarities and differences. We will focus especially on the Ibero- Romance varieties, albeit not exclusively, as they have received less attention in the 1 We would like to thank the participants and audience of the Possessive Constructions in Romance Conference (PossRom2018), held at Ghent University (27th-28th of June 2018) for their valuable input.
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