Split possession and the syntax of kinship nouns in Norwegian

Abstract Many languages have possessive constructions which treat different groups of nouns in different ways; this phenomenon is called split possession. The groups of nouns that are usually given special treatment are body part nouns and kinship nouns. Some split possession languages treat them the same way, while others treat them differently. This article discusses the syntax of kinship nouns in Norwegian. It is shown that they are grammatically different from alienable nouns, and both similar to and different from body part nouns. The results from Norwegian are placed in a larger typologi... Mehr ...