genitivedemonstrative

Genitive demonstrative is a term used in linguistics to describe a demonstrative determiner that co-occurs with a possessor in the genitive case, yielding a noun phrase that signals both reference and possession. In this construction, a demonstrative such as this or that precedes a noun whose possessor is marked in the genitive, a pattern common in languages with explicit case marking.

Typical realization involves a pre-nominal demonstrative followed by a noun phrase containing a genitive possessor. The exact morphology varies by language. For example in Turkish, the phrase bu adamın kitabı literally means “this man’s book”: bu is the demonstrative; adamın marks the man in the genitive, and kitabı shows the definite object form. The genitive demonstrative thus packages proximity or distance information together with possession, though the specific grammatical realization can differ cross-linguistically.

Relation to other constructions: genitive demonstratives are not usually a single fused morpheme but a composite noun phrase that combines demonstrative reference with possessive marking. They must be distinguished from simple demonstratives (this/that) and from independent possessive forms (my/your). In some grammars, the term is descriptive rather than denoting a distinct grammatical class; in others, it is analyzed as determiner-genitive concord or as a demonstrative functioning with a genitive possessor. Historical development can involve reanalysis or tightening of separate demonstrative and genitive markers into a more compact expression.

See also: demonstratives; genitive case; possessive constructions.