relativepossessive

Relativepossessive is a term used in linguistics to describe a type of relative clause that encodes a possession relation between the head noun and an inside noun within the relative clause. In such constructions, the head noun functions as the possessor of what appears in the relative clause. The common English realization is through the relative pronoun whose, as in The author whose novel won the prize, where the author possesses the novel.

English also allows other ways to express the same idea, such as The author of the novel that won the prize, which uses a genitive prepositional phrase rather than a dedicated possessive relative pronoun. Some languages employ a distinct relative marker or use genitive construction inside the relative clause to mark possession, rather than attaching possession to the head noun.

Key variation across languages concerns what counts as a permissible possessor, how the possessive relationship is marked, and how the relative clause interacts with movement or extraction. For example, some languages restrict whose-like relatives to animate possessors, while others extend it to inanimate nouns as well. Some systems require the possessed noun inside the relative clause to move or be licensed in particular syntactic positions, affecting what can be extracted.

The study of relativepossessive informs broader questions about DP structure, case and agreement, and the typology of relative clauses. It highlights the diversity of strategies languages use to encode possession in dependent clauses and contributes to cross-linguistic comparisons of how possessors are linked to their possessions in complex noun phrases.