External possession of body-part nouns in Jumjum: Possessor raising with possessum incorporation

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Abstract

In Jumjum, a Western Nilotic language, some body-part nouns, and only such nouns, may be externally possessed in transitive and antipassive clauses. In these external possessor constructions, the possessor is either the object of a transitive verb or the demoted patient of an antipassive verb. The externally possessed body-part noun is partly incorporated into the verb, as shown by the following properties: It immediately follows the verb, its tone is determined by the final tone of the verb, it may combine with a nominalized verb in a kind of compound, and it does not exhibit the root-final nasalization that is prevalent in monosyllabic singular nouns in Jumjum, including internally possessed body-part nouns.
Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of African Languages and Linguistics
Volume40
Issue number2
Pages (from-to)171-203
Number of pages33
ISSN0167-6164
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Oct 2019

Keywords

  • external possession; internal possession; body-part nouns; noun incorporation; Jumjum; Western Nilotic

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