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How possession is shown...(Translations- "The brother of Molly/Molly's brother")
I. Romance languages-- typically (as far as I can tell), with a posession of owner construction:
a. French- le frère de Molly
b. Spanish- el hermano de Molly
c. Portugese- o irmão de Molly --> (The de form also inflects with all articles, Molly just doesn't happen to have one)
d. Italian- il fratello di Molly
e. Esperanto- la frato de Molly (Mollio)
II. Genitives-- The form of the noun/article itself are inflected, through endings in these cases:
a. Latin- frater Molliae --> (using the 1f form "Mollia, Molliae". Could also be 3f Molly, Mollyis, or something, in which case it'd be frater Mollyis.)
b. Danish- Mollys broder --> (Anna, is this right?)
III. English and German-- Two constructions, one with 'of' and the other with ''s'/genitive. EDIT- Matsu set me straight, that German can do this too.
a. English- Molly's brother --> (A genitive-like construction) OR The brother of Molly --> (an "of" construction that seems sort of stilted/archaic/awkward in this case, but still grammatically correct)
b. German- Mollys Bruder --> (genitive, direct noun inflection) OR der Bruder von Molly --> (Genitive with the...I guess it's a preposition, von, rather than the noun, making it more like an "of" construction.)
IV. Afrikaans and Japanese-- The opposite of the romance construction, with an owner particle posession construction.
a. Afrikaans- Molly se broer
b. Japanese- Molly (Mouri ;P) no onii-san
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It's strange because in Afrikaans the 'se' is almost like an un-elided form of the English ''s'...and yet the fact that it is a seperate word, and not an ending or a contraction with the previous word, makes its construction similar to that of Japanese, which is so different from everything else--or is it? Japanese doesn't seem quite as strange anymore.
Oh yeah, and most of those examples were the products of skimming over grammar books/sites, so I may have missed something or gotten a couple incorrect. If you know for sure that what I put is wrong, please tell me how to fix it, ne? Insights on how other languages do this, if known, would also be appreciated.
I. Romance languages-- typically (as far as I can tell), with a posession of owner construction:
a. French- le frère de Molly
b. Spanish- el hermano de Molly
c. Portugese- o irmão de Molly --> (The de form also inflects with all articles, Molly just doesn't happen to have one)
d. Italian- il fratello di Molly
e. Esperanto- la frato de Molly (Mollio)
II. Genitives-- The form of the noun/article itself are inflected, through endings in these cases:
a. Latin- frater Molliae --> (using the 1f form "Mollia, Molliae". Could also be 3f Molly, Mollyis, or something, in which case it'd be frater Mollyis.)
b. Danish- Mollys broder --> (Anna, is this right?)
III. English and German-- Two constructions, one with 'of' and the other with ''s'/genitive. EDIT- Matsu set me straight, that German can do this too.
a. English- Molly's brother --> (A genitive-like construction) OR The brother of Molly --> (an "of" construction that seems sort of stilted/archaic/awkward in this case, but still grammatically correct)
b. German- Mollys Bruder --> (genitive, direct noun inflection) OR der Bruder von Molly --> (Genitive with the...I guess it's a preposition, von, rather than the noun, making it more like an "of" construction.)
IV. Afrikaans and Japanese-- The opposite of the romance construction, with an owner particle posession construction.
a. Afrikaans- Molly se broer
b. Japanese- Molly (Mouri ;P) no onii-san
--------------
It's strange because in Afrikaans the 'se' is almost like an un-elided form of the English ''s'...and yet the fact that it is a seperate word, and not an ending or a contraction with the previous word, makes its construction similar to that of Japanese, which is so different from everything else--or is it? Japanese doesn't seem quite as strange anymore.
Oh yeah, and most of those examples were the products of skimming over grammar books/sites, so I may have missed something or gotten a couple incorrect. If you know for sure that what I put is wrong, please tell me how to fix it, ne? Insights on how other languages do this, if known, would also be appreciated.
