The nominal group, possessive agreement, and nominal sentences in the Transeurasian languages

Abstract

This chapter deals with some of the most salient syntactic features of nominal groups and nominal sentences in Transeurasian languages; e.g. agreement in person and number between the heads and the modifiers expressed by adjectives, numerals, and demonstrative pronouns within nominal groups; formal and semantic properties of the “possessive noun + noun” adnominal possession construction; the morphology and syntax of reflexive possessive constructions. Special attention is paid to the inalienable/alienable possession split, observed in the existence of specialized possessive morphology, or of the double nominative and double accusative constructions of “external possession” in individual Transeurasian subbranches or languages. The chapter also describes the main types of Transeurasian nominal sentences, correlation of their formal and semantic types, and agreement between their subjects and predicates.