Parameters of Possession

This research project investigates parallels between double object constructions and possessive constructions in English, German and Arabic, with the aim of identifying structural commonalities and parameters of variation in the representation of possession across constructions and across languages. The investigation builds on recent developments in the analysis of the double object construction that indicate that the prepositional frame (e.g. Mary gave the keys to Doris) is derived from the double object frame (e.g. Mary gave Doris the keys), in contrast to previous lines of inquiry about their relatedness, which have either taken the double object frame to be derived from the prepositional frame or have taken the frames to represent alternative argument structures. The new view of the double object alternation has consequences for the analysis of two types of cross-linguistically attested possessive construction. In languages like English, possession is primarily expressed with the transitive verb have, while in languages like Arabic, possession is primarily expressed with a preposition supported by the auxiliary corresponding to be. It is thought that the Arabic-type possessive construction is related to the prepositional frame of the double object construction and the English-type construction to the double object frame. The new view of the double object alternation opens up the possibility that the Arabic-type prepositional possessive structure is derived from an English-type transitive structure, a possibility that has not been investigated in the past. This project pursues this possibility in the course of a contrastive analysis of English, Arabic and German. The comparison of Arabic with English and German is significant because of recent research indicating that some double object verbs in Arabic license a dative indirect object, as found in German, while other verbs license an accusative indirect object, as found in English. The three-way contrast between Arabic, English and German in the expression of possession and caused possession promises to isolate syntactic threads in argument structure and case licensing running through these construction types in the three languages, highlighting fundamental uniformities in the mental representation of linguistic structure. It promises simultaneously to isolate points of variation between them and parametric restrictions on deviations from these uniformities. The anticipated results of the project include a typology of possible syntactic structures for possession and caused possession in the three languages and an analysis of the interrelationships, derivational or otherwise, between the structures, that identifies the uniformities underlying these structures and the parameters of potential variation.

A basic rubric of human cognition is possession and the differentiation of possessor and thing possessed. The ubiquitousness of this cognitive construct goes hand in hand with striking similarities in the grammatical expression of possession across the world's languages, both in simple possessive sentences ('Hazel has a cat') and change-of-possession sentences ('Doris gave Hazel a cat'). Languages in which possession is expressed with a transitive verb like 'have' are the minority; most languages put the possessor in a prepositional phrase, which would look like 'To Hazel is a cat' in English, where 'to' is the preposition. This format is suspiciously similar to a common format for change-of-possession sentences, which also puts the possessor (as recipient) in a prepositional phase, as in 'Doris gave a cat to Hazel'. This project deconstructs these expressions of possession and seeks their common grammatical core. The main empirical terrain for the investigation was provided by the modern dialects of Arabic, particularly Syrian Arabic. These languages are significant because they make use of all of the constructions in the paradigm mentioned above, whereas most languages lack one or another of the constructions (for example, English lacks 'To Hazel is a cat', French lacks 'Doris gave Hazel a cat'). Arabic provides the opportunity to test the attributes of these constructions in the context of a single language, allowing us to factor out potential language-specific confounding factors. The research found that across these constructions, the possessor is fundamentally an abstract subject, the thing possessed an object. This grammatical 'molecule' is subject to several parameters of variation that derive deviations from the basic pattern. The main parameter of variation is whether the possessor or the possession relation is grammatically 'flagged' in some way. Possessors are often flagged by a preposition, as in 'To Hazel is a cat'. In such cases though, there is no possessive verb (the helping verb 'is' does not itself denote possession). The verb 'have' represents flagging of the possessive relation itself. Flagging of both is vanishingly rare in the world's languages, meaning that generally each language picks a parameter value ('flag possessor' or 'flag possession relation') and sticks to it. In the change-of-possession construction, the possessive predicate is combined with causality, which introduces an agent to the picture. Other interacting factors generate variations on these constructions. The findings of this project broadly support the 'Principles and Parameters' framework of linguistic analysis. In this framework, constructions conform to universal principles, but also to parameters of variation that languages may fine tune to different settings. The results of this research have advanced our understanding of the principles and parameters at work in the grammatical expression of the fundamental cognitive category of possession.