Possession marking

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Mirja has exclusively head-marked possession marking. It uses two different markers—-n for anything possessed by the topic of the matrix clause, and -ppa for everything else.

no pappa

no

1sg

pa-ppa

father-POSS

no pa-ppa

1sg father-POSS

'my father'

norho pana karu

no-rV-*

1sg-OBL-TOP

pa-n

father-REFL.POSS

karu

be.visible

no-rV-* pa-n karu

1sg-OBL-TOP father-REFL.POSS be.visible

'I can see my father'

In this grammar, -n is termed the 'reflexive possessive' marker; it's not technically a reflexive because it connects back to the topic rather than the subject, but subject and topic are tied together enough that this seems like a reasonable term.