Part 7
Having and holding
Possession lives twice in the grammar: inside the phrase, and as a claim of its own. Inside the phrase, the possessor simply comes first:
mia serao shelu
1SG old book
The pronoun keeps its ordinary form, the possessor leads, and the rest of the phrase follows in its usual order. The sequence is fixed: serao mia shelu would break the canonical nesting, and a contrast worth emphasis takes the focus particle or its own clause rather than a scrambled phrase.
01Having as a predicate
To assert the having itself, the possessed thing becomes the object of phelu:
mia lohau phelu.
1SG dog hold.
mia wi themo wiru phelu.
1SG two THING.CLF basket hold.
The verb names present holding, control, or keeping. The pronouns pamphlet has already drilled the neighboring trap, so one reminder suffices here: a bare clause-initial pronoun is the subject, and mia lohau nai. says "I am a dog." The having claim belongs to phelu, and the phrase-internal possessor belongs before its noun.
02Nesting, and its natural limit
Possessors nest:
mia melu shelu
1SG friend book
mia melu is itself a phrase, and it possesses the book entire. One level reads effortlessly. Beyond that, the ear starts doing bookkeeping: a chain like community-parent-friend-book is grammatical and asks the listener to resolve three relations before the noun arrives. Two short clauses carry the same facts in comfort, and choosing them is a courtesy the grammar leaves to you.
Practicehold it rightly
- Your garden.
- My friend's book.
- I have two baskets, counted and classified.
- Say "I have a dog," and say what the near-miss sentence would claim instead.
Answers: 1 thia thepalu. 2 mia melu shelu, the inner phrase possessing the outer noun. 3 mia wi themo wiru phelu. 4 mia lohau phelu.; the near miss, mia lohau nai., would make you the dog, which is why the having verb earns its keep.