Possessive constructions frequently resemble constructions serving the expression of other semantic contents. This may be coincidental in a given case; usually, however, it is not: as we saw in the preceding chapters, there are some conceptual domains that appear to be systematically related to possession. The present chapter provides a number of additional examples, though of a different kind.

Once a source schema has given rise to an expression for predicative possession, the latter itself may be the source of more abstract concepts, in particular of grammatial functions such as (a) markers of conditional protasis, (b) markers of deontic modality, (c) aspect markers, (d) tense markers, especially future tense markers (Fleischman 1982a, 1982b), (e) existential markers and copulas. In addition, ‘have’-verbs also occur as ‘links for addition’ in cardinal numerals, as e.g. in Quechua or the Nilo-Saharan language Mountain Nubian, which both have a construction of the type ‘ten one-having’ to denote ‘eleven’ (Greenberg 1978c:265). Furthermore, a number of authors (e.g. Locker 1954; Allen 1964; Benveniste 1960; Isačenko 1974b) have drawn attention to structural parallels that can be observed across languages between the morphosyntax of predicative possession on the one hand, and that of perfect aspects and other grammatical categories on the other.

A discussion of all these developments would exceed the scope of this book; the reader is referred to the relevant works (especially Bybee and Pagliuca 1985:73ff.; Bybee, Perkins, and Pagliuca 1994; Claudi 1994; Heine 1993, 1994c; Heine et al. 1993).