A Comparative Account of Possession Expression in Tugen and Kiswahili

Prisca Jerono

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.11

| Peer-Reviewed

A Comparative Account of Possession Expression in Tugen and Kiswahili

Prisca Jerono

Published in International Journal of Language and Linguistics (Volume 7, Issue 2)

Received: 21 January 2019 Accepted: 13 March 2019 Published: 10 April 2019

Views: Downloads:

Download PDF

Share This Article

Twitter
Linked In
Facebook

Abstract

Ownership, kinship and whole/part relationships are possessive expressions in natural languages. Possession is distinguished between alienable and inalienable possession, depending on the semantic relationship between the possessor and possessum. Alienable possession is a contextually dependent semantic relationship, where the elements in the relationship do not show any semantic dependency, whereas inalienable possession is a permanent semantic relationship between the possessor and the possessum for example as used in the expression of body parts. Besides possession, languages also exploit possessive expressions to express non possessive relationships, for example, emotive states. This paper attempts to compare how possession is expressed in Tugen, a Southern Nilotic language of the Kalenjin macro language and Kiswahili, a Bantu language. It also seeks to show how alienable and inalienable possession is distinguished in the languages, if at all, as well as how possessive expressions are used to express other non possessive relationships in both languages. It also seeks to find out the role of definiteness in the semantic expression of possession. This paper shows that in spite of the differences in the two languages the expression of possession is somewhat similar. Tugen is a VSO language while Kiswahili is an SVO language. Tugen is a native language spoken in Baringo county of Kenya, while Kiswahili is an official and national language in Kenya.

Published in	International Journal of Language and Linguistics (Volume 7, Issue 2)
DOI	10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.11
Page(s)	55-62
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2019. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Alienable and Inalienable Possession, Nominal Possession, Verbal Possession, Definiteness, Possessor Chains

References

[1]	Roberts, J. A (2015) Inalienable Possession in Amele: A Role and Reference Account. SIL International, SIL Electronic Working papers 2015-002.
[2]	Lyons, J. (1977) Semantics Vol 2. Cambridge; Cambridge University Press.
[3]	Aikhenvald, A. Y (2013) Possession and Ownership- A Cross Linguistic Perspective In Aikhenvald A. Y &R. M. W. (eds) Dixon Possession and Ownership, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
[4]	Rijn, V. M (2016) The grammaticalization of Possessive person marking; A Typolological Approach. Transactions of the Philological Society Vol 114:2 pp. 233-276.
[5]	Republic of Kenya (2010) The Kenya Constitution. Nairobi; Government Printer.
[6]	Mohamed, M. A. (2001) Modern Swahili Grammar. Nairobi, East African Educational Publishers.
[7]	Jerono, P. (2012) Tugen Word order- A Minimalist Perspective, Macedonia EGALITE.
[8]	Jerono, P. (2018) “Tugen Noun Classification” In Schroeder H. & P. Jerono (eds) Nilo –Saharan Issues and Perspectives Köln; Rüdiger Köppe Verlage pp 87-96.
[9]	Payne, T. E (1997) Describing Morphosyntax: A Field Guide for Linguists. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
[10]	Haiman, J. (1983) Iconic and Economic Motivation. In Language Vol. 59. No. 4 pp. 781-819.
[11]	Haspelmath, M. (2008) Alienable vs Inalienable possessive Constructions. https//www.eva.mpg.de/lingua/conference/08…/pdf/…Haspelmanth_possessives.pdf.
[12]	Heine, B. (1997) Possession: Cognitive sources, forces and grammaticalization. Cambridge; Cambridge University Press.
[13]	Stassen, L. (2009) Predicative Possession. Oxford; Oxford University Press.
[14]	Tham, S. W. (2013) Possession as a non verbal predication. Berkeley Linguistics Society 39: 302-316.
[15]	Sikuku, J. M & J. M. Wanyonyi (2018) On the nature of possession in Keiyo. Schroeder H. & P. Jerono (eds) Nilo-Saharan Issues and Perspectives. Köln; Rüdiger Köppe Verlag pp. 135-147.

Cite This Article

Plain Text BibTeX RIS

APA Style

Prisca Jerono. (2019). A Comparative Account of Possession Expression in Tugen and Kiswahili. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 7(2), 55-62. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.11

Copy | Download

ACS Style

Prisca Jerono. A Comparative Account of Possession Expression in Tugen and Kiswahili. Int. J. Lang. Linguist. 2019, 7(2), 55-62. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.11

Copy | Download

AMA Style

Prisca Jerono. A Comparative Account of Possession Expression in Tugen and Kiswahili. Int J Lang Linguist. 2019;7(2):55-62. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.11

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.11,
  author = {Prisca Jerono},
  title = {A Comparative Account of Possession Expression in Tugen and Kiswahili},
  journal = {International Journal of Language and Linguistics},
  volume = {7},
  number = {2},
  pages = {55-62},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.11},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.11},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijll.20190702.11},
  abstract = {Ownership, kinship and whole/part relationships are possessive expressions in natural languages. Possession is distinguished between alienable and inalienable possession, depending on the semantic relationship between the possessor and possessum. Alienable possession is a contextually dependent semantic relationship, where the elements in the relationship do not show any semantic dependency, whereas inalienable possession is a permanent semantic relationship between the possessor and the possessum for example as used in the expression of body parts. Besides possession, languages also exploit possessive expressions to express non possessive relationships, for example, emotive states. This paper attempts to compare how possession is expressed in Tugen, a Southern Nilotic language of the Kalenjin macro language and Kiswahili, a Bantu language. It also seeks to show how alienable and inalienable possession is distinguished in the languages, if at all, as well as how possessive expressions are used to express other non possessive relationships in both languages. It also seeks to find out the role of definiteness in the semantic expression of possession. This paper shows that in spite of the differences in the two languages the expression of possession is somewhat similar. Tugen is a VSO language while Kiswahili is an SVO language. Tugen is a native language spoken in Baringo county of Kenya, while Kiswahili is an official and national language in Kenya.},
 year = {2019}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - A Comparative Account of Possession Expression in Tugen and Kiswahili
AU  - Prisca Jerono
Y1  - 2019/04/10
PY  - 2019
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.11
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.11
T2  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JF  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JO  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
SP  - 55
EP  - 62
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2330-0221
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.11
AB  - Ownership, kinship and whole/part relationships are possessive expressions in natural languages. Possession is distinguished between alienable and inalienable possession, depending on the semantic relationship between the possessor and possessum. Alienable possession is a contextually dependent semantic relationship, where the elements in the relationship do not show any semantic dependency, whereas inalienable possession is a permanent semantic relationship between the possessor and the possessum for example as used in the expression of body parts. Besides possession, languages also exploit possessive expressions to express non possessive relationships, for example, emotive states. This paper attempts to compare how possession is expressed in Tugen, a Southern Nilotic language of the Kalenjin macro language and Kiswahili, a Bantu language. It also seeks to show how alienable and inalienable possession is distinguished in the languages, if at all, as well as how possessive expressions are used to express other non possessive relationships in both languages. It also seeks to find out the role of definiteness in the semantic expression of possession. This paper shows that in spite of the differences in the two languages the expression of possession is somewhat similar. Tugen is a VSO language while Kiswahili is an SVO language. Tugen is a native language spoken in Baringo county of Kenya, while Kiswahili is an official and national language in Kenya.
VL  - 7
IS  - 2
ER  -

Copy | Download

Author Information

Prisca Jerono

Department of Kiswahili, Faculty of Arts, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya

Download PDF

Sections

Plain Text BibTeX RIS

APA Style

Prisca Jerono. (2019). A Comparative Account of Possession Expression in Tugen and Kiswahili. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 7(2), 55-62. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.11

Copy | Download

ACS Style

Prisca Jerono. A Comparative Account of Possession Expression in Tugen and Kiswahili. Int. J. Lang. Linguist. 2019, 7(2), 55-62. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.11

Copy | Download

AMA Style

Prisca Jerono. A Comparative Account of Possession Expression in Tugen and Kiswahili. Int J Lang Linguist. 2019;7(2):55-62. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.11

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.11,
  author = {Prisca Jerono},
  title = {A Comparative Account of Possession Expression in Tugen and Kiswahili},
  journal = {International Journal of Language and Linguistics},
  volume = {7},
  number = {2},
  pages = {55-62},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.11},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.11},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijll.20190702.11},
  abstract = {Ownership, kinship and whole/part relationships are possessive expressions in natural languages. Possession is distinguished between alienable and inalienable possession, depending on the semantic relationship between the possessor and possessum. Alienable possession is a contextually dependent semantic relationship, where the elements in the relationship do not show any semantic dependency, whereas inalienable possession is a permanent semantic relationship between the possessor and the possessum for example as used in the expression of body parts. Besides possession, languages also exploit possessive expressions to express non possessive relationships, for example, emotive states. This paper attempts to compare how possession is expressed in Tugen, a Southern Nilotic language of the Kalenjin macro language and Kiswahili, a Bantu language. It also seeks to show how alienable and inalienable possession is distinguished in the languages, if at all, as well as how possessive expressions are used to express other non possessive relationships in both languages. It also seeks to find out the role of definiteness in the semantic expression of possession. This paper shows that in spite of the differences in the two languages the expression of possession is somewhat similar. Tugen is a VSO language while Kiswahili is an SVO language. Tugen is a native language spoken in Baringo county of Kenya, while Kiswahili is an official and national language in Kenya.},
 year = {2019}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - A Comparative Account of Possession Expression in Tugen and Kiswahili
AU  - Prisca Jerono
Y1  - 2019/04/10
PY  - 2019
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.11
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.11
T2  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JF  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JO  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
SP  - 55
EP  - 62
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2330-0221
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.11
AB  - Ownership, kinship and whole/part relationships are possessive expressions in natural languages. Possession is distinguished between alienable and inalienable possession, depending on the semantic relationship between the possessor and possessum. Alienable possession is a contextually dependent semantic relationship, where the elements in the relationship do not show any semantic dependency, whereas inalienable possession is a permanent semantic relationship between the possessor and the possessum for example as used in the expression of body parts. Besides possession, languages also exploit possessive expressions to express non possessive relationships, for example, emotive states. This paper attempts to compare how possession is expressed in Tugen, a Southern Nilotic language of the Kalenjin macro language and Kiswahili, a Bantu language. It also seeks to show how alienable and inalienable possession is distinguished in the languages, if at all, as well as how possessive expressions are used to express other non possessive relationships in both languages. It also seeks to find out the role of definiteness in the semantic expression of possession. This paper shows that in spite of the differences in the two languages the expression of possession is somewhat similar. Tugen is a VSO language while Kiswahili is an SVO language. Tugen is a native language spoken in Baringo county of Kenya, while Kiswahili is an official and national language in Kenya.
VL  - 7
IS  - 2
ER  -

Copy | Download