Celtic and Arabic both exhibit singulative forms and both lack the verb 'have'. I would like to know whether there are are singulative languages that have the main verb 'have'.
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1I don't quite understand why you want to link these two particular features. But then, why not?– fdbAug 8, 2017 at 17:40
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1I am working on a hypothesis under which there could be a relationship, but if there is a singulative language with 'have' I can cut the inquiry short.– Eric StenshoelAug 8, 2017 at 20:43
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The problem is that there are lot of languages that do not have the verb "to have", but have no singulatives either.– fdbAug 8, 2017 at 20:50
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Also, many languages have significantly demoted to have (eg Russian) so it is not required and not used in many constructions, but technically still have it for emphatic purposes and in calcified phrases.– Adam BittlingmayerAug 9, 2017 at 7:20
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5The richest collection of data regarding possessive constructions is L. Stassen's book: books.google.it/…– Artemij KeidanAug 9, 2017 at 9:19
1 Answer
Thanks to the reference to Stassen, I believe I have identified several languages in which these features co-exist: Kanuri, Shilluk, Krongo, Nobiin, Tirmaga and Nandi. Thanks to all.