The possession construction in Mazahua from Michoacan

Abstract

In Mazahua the relationship between possessor and possessum is marked by prefix and tone. In a possessiveconstruction, first and second persons are encoded on prefix with low or high tone. There is a grammaticalchange on third persona consisting of a reanalysis of a clitic with a low tone becoming a prefix witha high tone. In a complex possessive construction different semantic relationships are expressed. Thesesemantic relationships are organized in four domains. a) Material domain 1: part-whole (i.e body part),body secretion/excretion, inalienable ownership, alienable ownership. b) Material domain 2: part-whole (i.eparts of inanimate entities), actual container-content, portion-whole, potential container-content. c) Locativedomain: theme-fixed location, theme-temporal location, theme-origin. d) Social domain: intergenerationalkinship (including marriage), trans-generational kinship, other social links. These semantic relationships areencoded in prefix with tone and juxtaposition.