Possessive and Caritive in Nivkh

Abstract

This paper focuses on the various encoding strategies and other relevant issues pertaining to affirmative and negative predicative possession in the two Amuric languages, Amur Nivkh and Sakhalin Nivkh (Nighvng). One of the goals is to demonstrate that possessive negation serves as a major strategy for expressing caritive semantics (= non-involvement). Constructions rendering possessive and caritive meanings represent one of the basic and rather frequent types of clauses in Nivkh, and they are also interconnected both semantically and grammatically with other clause types. Some of the constructions present in Nivkh have analogues in the neighboring languages, while others are specific to Nivkh. The present paper, based on the author’s field materials, represents the first specific study of this topic.