Gréte Dalmi, Jacek Witkoś, and Piotr Cegłowski, eds. Approaches to Predicative Possession: The View from Slavic and Finno-Ugric.

Abstract

It is widely acknowledged that possession is a universal domain in the sense that all known human languages have conventionalized expressions for it, such as (1) and (2) below (cf. Heine 1997: 2). Like most abstract notions, the domain of possession defies a generally accepted definition. Yet, as pointed out by Stassen (2009: 10–11), most linguists and laymen would agree that the expressions in (1) and (2) illustrate cases of “real”/prototypical possession, while intuitions and views would differ on whether sentences such as (3) would count as examples of possession.

(1) Tom has a car.
(2) his car
(3) Frank has a sister.