Birtokost

Birtokost is a term used in Hungarian linguistics to denote the possessor in a possessive construction. The possessor is the entity that owns or has a relation of possession over another entity, the possessed. The concept is used to describe who holds ownership within a noun phrase or a clause, distinguishing the owner from the owned item.

In Hungarian, possessive marking is typically attached to the possessed noun rather than to the possessor. For this reason, the overt expression of the possessor often appears as a separate noun phrase, pronoun, or determiner before or in agreement with the possessed noun. A common example is a phrase like a nő könyve, often glossed as “the woman’s book,” where the suffix on the possessed noun signals the possession while the noun phrase a nő identifies the possessor. This illustrates how the dialogic or textual focus can shift between possessor and possessed without a dedicated case marking on the possessor itself.

The term birtokost emphasizes the semantic role of the possessor rather than a fixed morphological form. It is useful in cross-linguistic discussions of possession, where languages differ in how the possessor is marked or positioned syntactically. Birtokost can also be discussed in relation to definite versus indefinite possession, animacy, and how possessive constructions interact with pronouns and demonstratives.

See also: genitive case, possessive construction, Hungarian grammar, possessive suffix.