possessorpersoon

Possessorpersoon is a linguistic term used to describe how a language marks the person of the possessor in a possession construction. The concept focuses on who the possessor is—first, second, or third person—and where that information appears in a noun phrase or clause. In some analyses, possessorpersoon is encoded through possessive determiners or pronouns; in others, it is realized by affixes on the possessed noun or by agreement on verbs or adjectives.

Languages vary in how they express possessorpersoon. In languages with possessive adjectives, the determiner itself carries the person of the possessor, as seen in Spanish: mi libro (my book), tu libro (your book), su libro (his/her/its/their book). Other languages mark the possessor on the possessed noun or its noun phrase with suffixes or affixes, such as Finnish kirjani (my book) or Hungarian könyvem. Still others employ agreement on the noun or on the verb, so the person of the possessor influences concord rather than a separate possessive marker.

Cross-linguistic patterns include differences in the granularity of marking (1st, 2nd, 3rd person; sometimes inclusive vs. exclusive in plural), and whether the possessor information interacts with number, case, or gender. Some languages rely on an explicit possessive determiner or clitic, while others use genitive constructions or word order alone to signal ownership.

See also: possessive agreement, genitive marking, determiner-noun concord, possessive clitics.