possessiv

Possessiv is a grammatical term used to describe the feature that marks possession or a close association between a possessor and a possessed noun. It is found in many languages and can be expressed through words, affixes, or clitics that attach to the possessed noun or stand as independent pronouns.

In languages with a rich morphology, possessive marking often appears in two main forms: possessive determiners (or possessive adjectives) and possessive pronouns. Possessive determiners modify a noun and agree with it in person, number, and sometimes gender and case (for example, in German mein Auto, dein Haus). Possessive pronouns replace the noun (for example, Das ist meins). Some languages use independent possessive suffixes attached to the noun or employ a possessive construction with a separate possessive word or clitic.

English provides a common illustration: possessive adjectives such as my, your, his, her, its, our, their precede a noun, while possessive pronouns such as mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs stand alone. Other languages may express possession with a genitive case, a specialized possessive particle, or a combination of agreement and noun modification. The exact form and placement of possessives vary across language families.

Usage notes include that possessives can indicate ownership, kinship, origin, part-whole relations (the team’s logo), or attribution. They may require agreement with the possessed noun and can interact with other grammatical categories such as number, gender, and case. The term “possessiv” is often used in linguistic descriptions to reference this broad category rather than a single standardized form.