Possessors

Possessors are the entities that own or relate to another noun in possession constructions. In linguistic terms, the possessor is the noun phrase that marks ownership of the possessed noun. Possession can be described as alienable or inalienable, and possessors may be animate or inanimate. The study of possessors intersects with syntax (how possessors fit into noun phrases), morphology (possessive marking), and semantics (the nature of ownership and relation).

In English, possessors are typically expressed with possessive determiners such as my, your, his, her, our, and their, which appear directly before the possessed noun (my book). Possessive pronouns (mine, yours, his) can stand alone. The genitive 's, as in John's car, is another common form. An alternative is the prepositional "of" construction, as in the color of the car. English thus provides several parallel strategies for encoding possession, with stylistic or emphatic differences among them.

Cross-linguistic variation shows that possession can be expressed through different strategies: some languages place the possessor after the possessed, others mark possession on the possessor or on the possessed, and still others use head-marking or dependent-marking systems. Morphology may encode alienable versus inalienable possession, kinship relations, or part-whole relationships. Semantically, possessors relate to ownership, control, or association, and their treatment interacts with broader topics in syntax, morphology, and semantics, such as agreement, case marking, and the structure of noun phrases.