Possession in Tawala is an interesting phenomenon, characterized by two language specificities: it is head-marked and there is an alienability opposition.
Head-marking means that, in Tawala, it is the possessed noun that bears the possessive marker, unlike in languages like English where the possessor is marked instead. The alienability opposition refers to the fact that there are two possible possessive constructions in Tawala, which differ in terms of marking and semantics. The first is alienable possession, which means that the possessor has control over its relationship to the possessed. For instance, keduluma a tano ‘the woman’s garden’ is an example of alienable possession because the garden is owned by the woman. On the contrary, in woida tano-na ‘the yam’s garden’, the yams do not have control over the garden. This example would instead be demonstrating inalienable possession, thus illustrating the semantic difference between these two types of possession.
The type of possession applied to a particular noun can also simply be determined by the lexicon. For example, certain closed sets of nouns, like kinship terms and body parts, generally use the inalienable type of possession. However, some words can make use of both alienable and inalienable possession, as described in the previous paragraph. The choice in this case is determined purely by the meaning that the speaker wishes to convey.
Alienable possession is marked by an independent possessive pronoun, which appears just before the head. On the other hand, inalienable possession attaches as a pronominal enclitic on the head. In both cases, the possessor NP is optional. This can be illustrated by the formalized definitions below.
- Alienable: (Possessor NP) + <a> Possessed Noun
- Inalienable: (Possessor NP) + Possessed Noun <-na>
Table 1 shows an example of both constructions. In 1a), possession is marked by the suffix –na which agrees in person and number with the possessor bada ‘man’. In 1b), it is the free-form possessive pronoun a ‘his’ that agrees with the possessor.
In the following trees we will be focusing on the structure of inalienable possession.
- Word Structure Tree for bagibagi-na ‘work-3SG’
The suffix –na is attached to the possessed noun bagibagi and marks it with the agreement features 3rd person singular.
- D-Structure Tree for bada bagibagi-na ‘the man’s work’
- S-Structure Tree for bada bagibagi-na ‘the man’s work’
As shown above, bagibagi is generated as an NP and is dominated by an agreement node whose head is the possessive affix -na. The affix –na selects for the NP bagibagi, and this triggers head movement so that the affix is able to attach to it. The possessor NP bada is part of the DP dominating the agreement node.
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