Non-possession
How do languages say “I don’t have X”?
To express absence of possession, languages either negate a HAVE-verb, add a negative determiner to the object, or reframe the situation as one of non-existence or absence — with the possessor as topic, location, or dative.
- Domain
- ExistencePossessionNegation
- Structure
- SuppletionOblique marking
- Mechanism
- Lexicalization
Strategies
Negated HAVE
[I] NEG [have] [X]A HAVE-verb is negated by a sentential negator.
Negative determiner
[I] [have] [NEG.DET X]No negative on the verb; instead a negative determiner like “no” marks the object.
Existential absence
[X to me] [does not exist]The frame shifts: instead of negating possession, the language denies the existence of the thing (to me / at me).
Possessed absence
[my X] [is absent / not present]A possessed noun is predicated as absent or lacking.
Geographic distribution
Each dot is one attested language, coloured by the strategy it uses. Click a dot for the surface form.
Marker positions are approximate cultural centres — they are not territorial claims. Tiles: OpenFreeMap · © OpenStreetMap contributors · Dark tiles: © CARTO.
Language comparison
| Language | Strategy | Expression | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
English Indo-European › Germanic | Negated HAVE | I do not have money | |
English Indo-European › Germanic | Negative determiner | I have no money | |
Spanish Indo-European › Romance | Negated HAVE | No tengo dinero | |
German Indo-European › Germanic | Negative determiner | Ich habe kein Geld | |
Japanese Japonic | Existential absence | お金がない okane ga nai | money-NOM not.exist |
Turkish Turkic › Oghuz | Possessed absence | Param yok | money.POSS.1SG absent |
Russian Indo-European › Slavic | Existential absence | У меня нет денег U menja net deneg | at me NEG.EXIST money.GEN |
Ainu Ainu (isolate, critically endangered) | Existential absence | icen isam | icen “money”; isam is the dedicated negative existential verb (cf. an / oka in Existence) |
Tagalog (Filipino) Austronesian › Philippine | Existential absence | Wala akong pera | wala is the suppletive negative of may and covers non-existence and non-possession with one form; ako is the ang-phrase possessor, linked -ng to pera “money” |
Examples
Toggle between Natural / Literal / Gloss to see how each language conceptualises the same idea.
お金がない。
okane ga nai.
- Natural
- I don’t have money.
Param yok.
- Natural
- I don’t have money.
У меня нет денег.
U menya net deneg.
- Natural
- I don’t have money.
Ich habe kein Geld.
- Natural
- I don’t have money.
Icen isam.
イチェン イサㇺ
- Natural
- I don’t have money.
References
- Haspelmath 1997 01Haspelmath, Martin (1997).Indefinite Pronouns.Oxford University Press.
- Heine 1997 02Heine, Bernd (1997).Possession: Cognitive Sources, Forces, and Grammaticalization.Cambridge University Press.
- Sabbagh 2009 03Sabbagh, Joseph (2009).Existential sentences in Tagalog.
- Schachter & Otanes 1972 04Schachter, Paul; Otanes, Fe T. (1972).Tagalog Reference Grammar.University of California Press.
- Stassen 2009 05Stassen, Leon (2009).Predicative Possession.Oxford University Press.
- Tamura 2000 06Tamura, Suzuko (2000).The Ainu Language.ICHEL Linguistic Studies, Vol. 2. Sanseido, Tokyo.
- Veselinova 2014 07Veselinova, Ljuba N. (2014).The Negative Existential Cycle viewed through the lens of comparative data.In Hancil, Sylvie; van Gelderen, Elly (eds.), On Multiple Source Constructions in Language Change. John Benjamins. 139–187.
- Veselinova & Hamari 2022 08Veselinova, Ljuba N.; Hamari, Arja (2022).The Negative Existential Cycle.
Related patterns
Corrections
Any of this can be wrong. Dispute what the page says, add a language it is missing, or edit the file it was rendered from.