SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Although possessors internal to an argument DP do not qualify as canonical controllers of verbal agreement, in some languages an internal possessor may be cross-referenced on an applicative verb. The aim of the paper is to propose a historical scenario for the emergence of this pattern, following the basic insights of the constructional approach to language change. The paper argues that this pattern is a historical innovation. It emerged when the external possessor was reanalysed as internal, a process that has parallels in some languages with dative possessors. The change was motivated by cross-constructional analogy, namely, formal and semantic assimilation to the class of internal possessive constructions. When constituency was reanalysed, the location of agreement remained intact creating a non-local configuration.