ABSTRACT
The research presents the strategies of encoding possessive relations which were identified in a corpus of texts (2158 sentences, 25 texts) in the Priural (Obdorsk) dialect of the Khanty language. The present study of predicative possession in the analyzed dialects is conducted within the methodology of the functional theory of grammar [Stassen 2009]. Khanty is one of the Finno-Ugric languages, comprising together with the Mansi and Hungarian languages the Ugric language group, and together with the Mansi language the Ob-Ugric subgroup. The Priural dialect composes together with Kazym, Shuryshkar, transitional Middle-Ob dialect and southern Priirtysh dialect the western cluster of Khanty [Solovar et al. 2016]. The speaker of the Priural vernacular live norther of all in Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Districts that is located in the Tyumen region of the Russian Federation.
The most common strategy of encoding possession in the Priural dialect is a transitive one based on the verb sob. tăj-, pol. täj- ‘have’, that is used to express the main conceptual features of possession (permanent, abstract, physical, alienable, inalienable, inanimate). An intransitive strategy of encoding possession encompasses two types of constructions based on the locative/existential sentence with the verb sob. u(l)-, pol. o(l)- ‘be/live’: an intransitive construction wherein the possessor is indexed on the possessed, and an intransitive locative construction. The first intransitive construction simultaneously encodes existential or/and spatial relations, whereas the implicit possessor is indexed on the possessed. In the intransitive locative construction, which is commonly used to encode temporal and alienable possession, the possessor is followed by a postpositive element χŎśa with a spatial meaning, while the predicate can be implicit. Negative possession is encoded differently in the transitive and intransitive strategies. While the “standard” syntactical negation (term – Miestamo 2016), expressed by a negative particle sob. ăn, pol. än ‘no, not’, is used in the transitive strategy, a special negative form of the verb “be” – sob. ăntam, pol. äntam – is common in negative intransitive constructions.
Keywords: Khanty language, Priural dialect, Predicative possession.