The expression of inalienable belonging in the North American indigenous languages

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Abstract

this article analyzes the ways of expressing inalienable belonging in the languages of some Indian tribes of North America. In these languages, as in many others, belonging appears in two forms: alienable and inalienable. Two types of constructions demonstrate clear distinctions between inalienable and alienable. Most often, possessive constructions with possessive pronouns attached to possessive nouns are used primarily to denote inalienable possession, in almost all languages, while constructions with an added possession marker are overwhelmingly used to denote alienable possession, such as real estate possession. The expression of inalienability is not limited to word- or phrase-level constructions, but can also be conveyed by sentence-level constructions. Examples taken from different languages show similarities in the means and ways of expressing inalienability. Nevertheless, the concepts that are classified as inalienable differ from language to language, although they usually include body parts and/or relatives, spatial relations and often other closely related objects such as a house, some personal tools, footprints or even thoughts. The material of the presented article may be of interest to specialists in comparative-historical, typological linguistics, history of language.

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E. V Krasnoschekov

Southern Federal University

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