Abstract
Hebrew has two constructions that are used to convey possessive relations: ordinary possession (OP) and possessive dative (PD). PD is most often used when the possessor is perceived as affected by the action or state described in the sentence. This study investigates the possibility that this tendency is gradually diminishing – in other words, that unaffected possessors in PD are in the process of becoming more acceptable. This hypothesis was evaluated in a blog corpus study, which focused on a central correlate of possessor affectedness: whether or not the possessed object was a body part (inalienability). In line with the hypothesis, inalienability had a weaker effect on the choice of construction in younger than in older bloggers. The overall proportion of PD constructions was similar across age groups. This suggests that the change is best viewed as semantic bleaching of PD rather than as a process in which PD is gaining ground at the expense of OP.
Acknowledgments
I thank Mira Ariel, Gregory Guy and Luiza Newlin-Lukowicz for feedback and Isaac Bleaman for help obtaining Yiddish judgments. Previous versions of this work were presented at the Workshop on Variation and Change in Argument Realization in Naples in 2010 and the New Ways of Analyzing Variation 40 conference in Washington D.C. in 2011.
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Appendix
Sources for attested examples:
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