Possession as an Operational Dimension

This study exemplifies the model and the methodology worked out by the author and his co-workers with regard to the problems connected with language universals, language functions, language invariants, and language typology.

It starts with the observation that linguistic POSSESSION presupposes cenceptual POSSESSION and that the linguistic representation of such a concept is not a given but constitutes a problem to be solved by the human mind. The universality of the concept of POSSESSION and the diversity of the linguistic expressions corresponding to this concept are shown to be united by an invariant or common denominator which can be reconstructed on the basis of this very diversity. A powerful tool for the task of the reconstruction is constituted by the observable fact that the diversified structures of widely differing languages can be arranged in continua and subcontinua, each of them manifesting the same two converse functional principles: inherent vs. established POSSESSION.

This monograph, as well as the entire series, addresses linguists, language philosophers, logicians, psychologists, neuro-psychologists, and anthropologists.