Syntactic distribution of person marking within possessed nouns alongside pronominal possessors (Northern Mansi)

PP(Gen)PossAff: The possessor is optionally expressed by the personal pronoun in base form, alongside which affixation of the possessed noun is obligatory.


(1) taw witujsow ťēnt-e
he/she beaver_pelt hat-3sg
‘his/her beaver pelt hat’


In Northern Mansi, the appearance of a pronominal possessor depends on the informational structure, i.e. it is optional (Riese 2001: 64). In contrast, the personal suffix is compulsory next to a pronominal possessor (Riese 2001: 28). Rombandeeva considers this construction emphasized and focused due to the obligatory affixation (Rombandeeva 1973:64).

Author: 

Szilvia Németh