A typological view of possessive constructions in Sign Language of the Netherlands

ones (6b), as well as for kinship terms (6c, 6d) and part-whole relations with animate (6e) and inanimate possessors (6f). Juxtaposing nominal possessors and possessums in NGT then does not seem to be restricted to alienable or inalienable possession. [VanDale COACH] (6) a. DUTCH NATIONAL-TEAM COACH INDEX3 EVERYBODY ALWAYS CRITICISE3 'The coach of the Dutch national (soccer) team is always criticised by everybody.' q b. THIS MEETING GOAL WHAT [VanDale DOEL] 'What is the goal of this meeting?' c. BEST FRIEND FATHER [recording FAMILY TREE] 'the father of (your) best friend' d. SON UNCLE DEAD [recording FAMILY TREE] '(Your) uncle's son is dead.' [VanDale ANGST/ANGSTIG] e. PHOTO CL:rectangular INDEX3 WOMAN FACE FEAR 'On the photo you can see the fear on the face of the woman.' f. HEARING-AID BATTERY LOW [VanDale BATTERIJ] 'The battery of the hearing aid is low.' Concerning the insertion of a possessive marker between possessor and possessum, the data are less clear. Only in the data elicited in relation to kinship did instances of such insertion of an index pronoun occur, as exemplified below. (7) a. BEST FRIEND INDEX3 MOTHER [recording FAMILY TREE] 'the mother of (your) best friend' b. BEST FRIEND INDEX3 PARENTS [recording FAMILY TREE] 'the parents of (your) best friend' [recording FAMILY TREE] c. OLDEST UNCLE INDEX3, SPOUSE DEAD '(My) oldest uncle's wife is dead.' d. AUNT INDEX3, HUSBAND DEAD [recording FAMILY TREE] '(My) aunt's husband is dead.' However, sentences (7c) and (7d) exhibit signs of the possessors forming part of a different constituent than the possessum (indicated here with a comma). The pronominal possessor is accompanied by a headnod followed by a small pause, then for the possessums SPOUSE and HUSBAND, the chin is lifted again. Non-manual marking such 35 Texas Linguistics Forum Proceedings from the 13th meeting of the Texas Linguistics Society