Genitivist

Genitivist is a term occasionally used in linguistics to refer to a scholar or analyst who specializes in genitive constructions and the genitive case across languages. It is not a standard professional label, and it appears mainly in informal or descriptive discussions rather than in formal job titles.

Genitives mark various relationships beyond possession, including part-whole, measure, origin, and source. A genitivist studies how languages encode these relations, how the genitive phrase is formed and placed within larger sentence structures, and how genitive usage changes over time or through language contact. Researchers may examine morphological markings (such as English -’s, German -s), syntactic positioning in noun phrases, determiner interactions, and the availability of periphrastic or analytic alternatives.

Cross-linguistic work is common, comparing Indo-European languages like English and German with Slavic, Baltic, and Semitic languages, as well as analytic languages without a dedicated genitive case that express genitive-like meaning through prepositions or possessive constructions. Topics also include historical development, frequency, functions of genitives, and cognitive processing.

Despite its occasional use, the designation is informal; the term highlights interest in possession and related grammatical relations rather than a formal academic degree or position. The broader field is English grammar, German grammar, and linguistic typology, with the genitive case being a central component in studies of inflection and syntax.