spossessive

Spossessive is not a widely recognized term in standard linguistic reference works. It sometimes appears as a misspelling or informal variant of possessive, and in other discussions it has been used as a coinage to discuss hypothetical ways languages might mark possession. Because it is not established in reference grammars, its meaning can vary depending on who uses it.

When adopted as a genuine label, some authors imagine an s-possessive system in which the possessor noun bears a marker—an affix or clitic—that signals possession, rather than the marker attaching to the possessed noun as in languages with the English possessive "'s" or possessive suffixes. In such a hypothetical framework, the relationship of ownership would be encoded through the morphology of the possessor itself, with the possessed noun remaining unmarked or marked in a different way. The specifics of how this would work are intentionally language-specific and not standardized, since the concept itself is not part of a consensus theory.

In practice, possession is most often expressed through known forms such as the English possessive clitic on the possessor, possessive adjectives and determiners, or various possessive suffixes and prefixes found in other languages. The idea behind an s-possessive approach is primarily of interest in typological or theoretical discussions about how languages can encode ownership, rather than as a description of a commonly attested grammatical category.

If you encounter the term "spossessive", it is helpful to check the source for whether it is intended as a typographical error, a shorthand, or a description of a proposed hypothetical system. Related topics include possessive case, possessive pronouns, clitics, and apostrophe usage.