LINGUIST List 10.847

Fri Jun 4 1999

Sum: Possession in Hebrew

Editor for this issue: Jody Huellmantel <jodylinguistlist.org>

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  • Simona Herdan, Sum: Possession in Hebrew

    Message 1: Sum: Possession in Hebrew

     Date: Thu, 3 Jun 1999 10:18:46 +0300
    From: Simona Herdan <simonainterplus.ro>
    Subject: Sum: Possession in Hebrew


    First I would like to thank everyone who took the time to resond to my query. I was simply overwhelmed with responses and it took me quite a while to make up a summary. Here's a list of everyone who replied (my apologies to anyone I might have missed!)

    Glenn Ayres <gayresalpha.sg.inter.edu> Farooq Babrakzai <babrakhawaii.edu> Donn Bayard <ANTH03rivendell.otago.ac.nz> Andolin Eguzkitza Bilbao <frpegbiavc.ehu.es> Francis Bond <bondcslab.kecl.ntt.co.jp> Jean-Frangois Bourdin <jbourdinfmagic.fr> Joel Boyd <joel.boydwmich.edu> Benjamin T. Bruening <muawiyaMIT.EDU> Chris Butler <cbutlermx4.redestb.es> Gaby Charing <gcharingdial.pipex.com> Gema Chocano gema.chocanouam.es Vern Curts <vcurtsmidco.net> Nikolai A. Dobronravin <nikolaiND1506.spb.edu> Kathleen Evans-Romaine <evans-rkohio.edu> Gisbert Fanselow fanselowrz.uni-potsdam.de Stephane Goyette s455152aix1.uottawa.ca Mohamed Guerssel <Guerssel.mohameduqam.ca> Karen A. Van Hoek <kvhumich.edu> Jussi Hakokari <juvehautu.fi> Mark Irwin <padzilcs.hokudai.ac.jp> Natalia Kondrashova <nyk1cornell.edu> Rina Kreitman kreitmannetvision.net.il Richard Laurent <laurent28hotmail.com> John Peterson John.Petersongermanistik.uni-muenchen.de Seongha Rhee <seonghashinbiro.com> Deborah D K Ruuskanen <druuskancc.helsinki.fi> Geoffrey Sampson <geoffscogs.susx.ac.uk> Ellen Schur <ellensoumail.openu.ac.il> Robin Setton robseteasynet.fr Alexandra Terano <cassyternoyahoo.com> Yishai Tobin yishaibgumail.bgu.ac.il Takae Tsujioka <tsujioktgusun.georgetown.edu> Theo Vennemann <tvncis.uni-muenchen.de> Remy Viredaz <remy.viredazspan.ch> Maurice Williams <mauriceawilliamshotmail.com>

    For those who don't remember my query, I've pasted the original query here:

    >I am gathering information for a project on various aspects of >possession in Hebrew. What I find most interesting is the use of >"there is/are" to render the present tense of "to have" and of the >forms of "to be" for the other tenses. These verbal forms are followed >by a preposition indicating goal/direction. So, literally, a sentence >like "I had a book" would be translated as "A book WAS TO ME". > >I wonder if such correspondences between "to have" and "to be" exist >in other languages too. I would very much appreciate any help in >finding references to studies dealing with possession in general and >also with this particular aspect of Hebrew or of another language.

    The relationship between existence and possession seems to be quite wide-spread cross-linguistically. As I have been told and noticed myself from the examples I got, languages that lexicalize possession by means of a verb similar to English "have" are quite a "minority". Expressing possession as abstract location appears to be cognitively salient, phenomenon which has already been studied. Some of the languages that behave more or less like Hebrew are (in no particular order):

    Japanese Finnish Russian Welsh and Insular Celtic Languages Latin Classical Persian Chinese Korean Indo-iranian Hindi Classical Arabic Turkish Berber Hausa

    I have received lots of examples and references which are all very interesting and helpful, which I won't mention here because the list is too long. Anyone who is interested in the subject can contact me and receive the list and the examples. Once again, thanks everyone.

    Simona Herdan Linguistics Student University of Bucharest, Romania simonainterplus.ro