Datapoint Ghanaian Pidgin English/Order of possessor and possessum

The possessor-possessum construction either involves simple juxtaposition or an intervening 3SG possessive pronoun.

The very few examples of the possessum-possessor order in my corpus are all ambiguous. For example, in ɔ mà bus fɔ mà fes [all 1SG.POSS booze for 1SG.POSS face] 'all the mucus of my face' could also be interpreted as 'all the mucus in my face'. The status of such constructions as possessive is therefore doubtful.

Values

Possessor-possessum

Example 16-2:
dè go fɔ dagɔmba ʧif haus
dè
3pl
go
go
fɔ
to
dagɔmba
Dagomba
ʧif
chief
haus
house
They went to the Dagomba chief's house.

Source: Huber 1999: 210

Example 16-180:
à hiɛ dɛ fud ìn tes.
à
1sg
hiɛ
smell
dɛ
art.def
fud
food
ìn
3sg.poss
tes.
smell
I smelled the food's smell.

Source: Huber 1999: 211

Confidence:
Very certain