Abstract
The alienability distinction has long been recognized as one of the major factors driving differential marking of possession across languages. But opinions are divided on its exact nature. I will bring evidence from the Oceanic language Daakaka to support the hypotheses that the alienability distinction is not a lexical property of nouns but a property of possessive relations: speakers can choose between different constructions depending on the relation between the possessor and the possessed that they wish to express. Secondly, lexically non-relational nouns can be transitivized to express inalienable relations. And thirdly, the basic semantic notion behind alienable possession is control.
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