Friday, July 21, 2023

Ćwarmin: To Have

Predicative possession is an important expression in languages. Naturally, Ćwarmin has expressions for it as well. As it turns out, there are two different expressions, mainly depending on the definiteness of the object, but other factors also may force the 'definite' form to be used.

For indefinite possessums, you simply juxtapose the owner in the nominative with a noun in the accusative complement case. Use of a copula is optional, and governed by the same rules as the copula in general.

For a definite possessum, the possessum is in the definite accusative, and there is a dummy pronoun in the accusative complement case. The dummy pronoun is either nitce (for singulars) or (g)initce (for plurals). Copula use is optional, but might be slightly more frequent than with indefinites.

More detailed quantification (indefinite quantifiers, numbers, etc) require the definite construction even if the possessum is not definite.

Negated possession always takes nitce, but puts the object in the negative object form.

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