Predicative possession constructions in the Apurinã language (Arawak)

Abstract

This research addresses the main issues concerning the ownership linguistic codification in verbal constructions of the Apurinã language (Arawak), spoken by many indigenous communities spreading over different tributaries of the Purus River in the southeastern state of Amazonas. It starts from the contributions of some scholars who are engaged in describing the possession as a language category, in order to compare the typological view of possession in linguistics with the expression of possession in the Apurinã language, specifically in terms of predicative possession. We refer to authors such as Heine (2001), Perniss and Zeshan (2008) and Stassen (2009) for the typological characterization and classification of ownership domain. In the case of predicative possession expression in Apurinã, we present a summary of the analysis previously made by Facundes (1995 and 2000), to then present new data and analysis, based on field research conducted in November 2014 and March 2015. In Apurinã the awa verb, meaning ‘have’, occurs in predicative possession constructions, as in n-awa-ry epi kanawa, ‘I have two canoes’ (where n- encodes the 1st person singular; awa corresponds to the verb ‘to have’; -ry is equivalent to 3rd person masculine singular object; epi means ‘two’ and kanawa corresponds to ‘canoe’). In addition to awa, we detected, during the field research, two other verbal forms never before attested related to the expression of possession in Apurinã, and which will be described in this article. We present, therefore, a review of the analysis previously done by Facundes (1995 and 2000), adding new data and analysis based on data from the most recent field survey.