This article is about a linguistic category. For the property category, see Inalienable possessions.
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In linguistics, inalienable possession[1] (abbreviated INAL) is a type of possession in which a noun is obligatorily possessed by its possessor. Nouns or nominal affixes in an inalienable possession relationship cannot exist independently or be "alienated" from their possessor.[2] Inalienable nouns include body parts (such as leg, which is necessarily "someone's leg" even if it is severed from the body), kinship terms (such as mother), and part-whole relations (such as top).[3] Many languages reflect the distinction but vary in how they mark inalienable possession.[4] Cross-linguistically, inalienability correlates with many morphological, syntactic, and semantic properties.
In general, the alienable–inalienable distinction is an example of a binary possessive class system in which a language distinguishes two kinds of possession (alienable and inalienable). The alienability distinction is the most common kind of binary possessive class system, but it is not the only one.[4] Some languages have more than two possessive classes. In Papua New Guinea, for example, Anêm has at least 20 classes, and Amele has 32.[5][4]
Statistically, 15–20% of the world's languages have obligatory possession.[6]
^"Haspelmath Possessives" (PDF). www.eva.mpg.de.
^Matthews, P. H. (2007). Inalienable possession. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780199202720.001.0001. ISBN 9780199202720.
^Lichtenberk, Frantisek; Vaid, Jyotsna; Chen, Hsin-Chin (2011). "On the interpretation of alienable vs. inalienable possession: A psycholinguistic investigation". Cognitive Linguistics. 22 (4): 659–689. doi:10.1515/cogl.2011.025. S2CID 143993134. ProQuest 919350399.
^ abcNichols, Johanna; Bickel, Balthasar. "Possessive Classification". World Atlas of Language Structures. Retrieved 2011-02-26.
^Nichols, Johanna; Bickel, Balthasar (2013). Dryer, Matthew S; Haspelmath, Martin (eds.). "Possessive Classification". The World Atlas of Language Structures Online.
^Nichols, Johanna; Bickel, Balthasar. "Feature/Obligatory Possessive Inflection". World Atlas of Language Structures. Retrieved 2011-03-06.
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In linguistics, inalienablepossession (abbreviated INAL) is a type of possession in which a noun is obligatorily possessed by its possessor. Nouns or...
Inalienablepossessions (or immovable property) are things such as land or objects that are symbolically identified with the groups that own them and...
Look up inalienable, inaliénable, or inalienability in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Inalienable or inalienability may refer to: Inalienable right,...
that control Title (property) Inalienablepossession, relationship between two objects that is irreversible Possession (linguistics), grammatically expressed...
There are two key syntactic constructions for possession: alienable and inalienable. Inalienablepossession refers to the relationship between a person/being...
present or future possession. A and O possession refer to alienable and inalienablepossession in Rapa Nui. a marks for alienable possession and o marks for...
prefixes. Arawakan languages tend to distinguish alienable and inalienablepossession. A feature found throughout the Arawakan family is a suffix (whose...
alienable possession, inalienablepossession can only take the order of possessor-possessum. Biak contains three subsets of inalienability: body parts...
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alienable possession by humans, as in ŋoc àndu 'my house', nêm i 'your fish', nê jàc 'his brother-in-law (wife's brother)'. Inalienablepossession is marked...
refers to alienable possession, a relationship between two referents of a less permanent and inherent type than inalienablepossession, of an item that is...
with inalienablepossession include body parts, and kinship terms (except for emaq 'wife' where the prefix is optional as with alienable possession). This...
expresses different degrees of possession. In addition to the most common differentiation between alienable and inalienablepossession, Manam uses a particular...
alienable possession or inalienablepossession. An alienably possessed item (a tree, for example) can exist even without a possessor. But inalienably possessed...
the flesh that makes up one's body. This is known as inalienable, integral or organic possession. -tia derives from noun X a verb with an approximate...
common in Austronesian languages, of alienable and inalienablepossession, respectively. Alienable possession denotes a relationship in which the thing possessed...
Singular Circassian inalienable nouns are expressed by the following prefixes: Plural nouns have these prefixes: Alienable possession is used when referring...
[citation needed] Obligatory possession is sometimes called inalienablepossession. However, true inalienablepossession is a semantic notion, largely...
alienable and inalienablepossession by varying the way the noun is (or is not) marked as possessed. Jakaltek, for example, contrasts inalienably possessed...
particular culture or government, and so are universal, fundamental and inalienable (they cannot be repealed by human laws, though one can forfeit their...
and introduced a series of technical terms such as reciprocity, inalienablepossessions, and presentation to distinguish between the different forms of...
alienable and inalienablepossession. Alienable possessions such as objects and kinship are marked by suffix, while inalienablepossessions such as body...
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