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    The pronominal possessive construction
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    The possessor Noun Phrase (NP) must be followed by a coreferential pronoun in the pronominal possessive construction. Furthermore, the possessor must be a person. The construction can be relativised with the aid of the relative pronoun dy that one, which is homophonous with the topic pronoun.

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    The possessor NP must be followed by a coreferential pronoun in the pronominal possessive construction. An example is given below:

    1
    It is de boer syn lân
    it is the farmer his land
    It is the farmer's land

    This construction is restricted to the third person. Furthermore, pronouns are banned from the NP position:

    2
    a. *Ik myn lân
    I my land
    My land
    b. *Hy syn lân
    he his land
    His land

    This construction is relativized by means of the relative pronoun dy that one, which is homophonous with the topic pronoun and the demonstrative pronoun. The possessor NP is relativized by putting the entire NP containing the possessor at the beginning of the sentence, as shown below:

    3
    a. It is de boer syn lân
    it is the farmer his land
    It is the farmer's land
    b. De boer dy syn lân oft it is
    the farmer REL his land COMP it is
    The farmer whose land it is

    The complementiser may be spelled out as oft that or as that. The construction is quite infrequent in the Frisian Language Corpus. Mostly, a construction is chosen in which the antecedent occurs in the preceding sentence and the pronoun dy that one refers back to it by means of discourse coreference:

    4
    … de boer, Haaksma. Dy syn lân is it
    the farmer Haaksma TOP his land is it
    … the farmer, Haaksma. It is his land

    The complementiser in a relative clause may also take the form as if, or, more marginally, dat that. The use of the complementiser is optional with non-subject relatives, as is clear from comparing the sentence below to (3b) above:

    5
    De boer dy syn lân it is
    the farmer REL his land it is
    The farmer whose land it is

    The complementiser must be absent with subject relatives:

    6
    a. De boer dy syn lân te keap is
    the farmer REL his land for sale is
    The farmer whose land is for sale
    b. *De boer dy syn lân as te keap is
    the farmer REL his land COMP for sale is
    The farmer whose land is for sale

    The complementiser cannot cliticise onto the NP containing the possessor:

    7
    *De boer dy syn lân 't it is
    the farmer REL his land. COMP it is
    The farmer whose land it is

    The complementiser cannot cliticise onto the relative pronoun:

    8
    *De boer dy 't syn lân it is
    the farmer REL.COMP his land it is
    The farmer whose land it is

    The possessive pronoun coreferential with the relative pronoun can be nominalised in a relative construction:

    9
    Grins stie ûnder dy fan de domproast fan Utert, dy sines de grutste wie
    Groningen stood below TOP of the deanery of Utrecht REL his.NE the biggest was
    The deanery of Groningen was below the one of the dean of Utrecht, whose deanery was the biggest

    The possessive pronoun may also be feminine in case it refers to a woman:

    10
    De frou dy har boek as ik lêzen ha
    the woman REL her book COMP I read have
    The woman whose book I read

    The pronoun dy that one necessarily refers to persons regardless of whether it used as a topic pronoun or a relative pronoun. Its counterpart dat 'refers' to non-persons. However, non-persons are barred from the possessor position, as illustrated below:

    11
    a. *It lân syn eigner
    the land his owner
    The owner of the land
    b. *De auto syn moter
    the car his engine
    The engine of the car

    Likewise, the relative pronoun dat that is never found in possessor position:

    12
    *It autootsje dat syn moter as it net die
    the car.DIM that his engine COMP it not do
    The car of which the engine did not function properly

    In such cases, a PP built on the possessive preposition fan of must be used:

    13
    It autootsje dêr't de moter it net fan die
    the car.DIM R.COMP the engine it not of did
    The car of which the engine did not function properly

    In example (12), the possessive Adposition Phrase (PP) is found adjacent to the verb, to the right of the idiomatic object pronoun it it and to the right of the negation net not. The NP with which it is construed occurs in subject position, to the left of the idiomatic object pronoun and to the left of negation. In the construction of this relative clause , the possessor PP has apparently been split off from the NP with which it is construed. In the absence of relativization, it is not possible to seperate the PP from the NP with which it is construed:

    14
    ?*Omdat de moter it net fan it autootsje die
    because the engine it not of the car.DIM did
    Because the engine of the car did not function properly

    These facts suggest that the verb licenses an escape-hatch for prepositional complements. Incidentally, it should be noted that the non-person relative pronoun dat that may not occur in any type any type of free (headless) relative, regardless of whether it is interpreted as a subject, object or possessor.

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      About this article
      Author(s): Eric Hoekstra
      Category: Frisian Syntax
      Keywords: possessor
      Version: 1.0, December 2015
      Version history:
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      1.0 Eric Hoekstra December 2015
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