Predicative possession in Bantu languages

Abstract This chapter first compares the variety observed in the predicative possession constructions of Bantu languages to that observed in the languages of the world, and particularly across Sub-Saharan languages, and then discusses the possible historical relationships between the comit possessive type, strongly predominant in Bantu, and the have possessive type. The have possessive constructions found among Bantu languages may result not only from the semantic evolution of verbs such as ‘catch’, ‘take’, and ‘hold’, but also from the reanalysis of either a sequence ‘be with’ or a preposition ‘with’ as a verb ‘have’. Finally, this chapter discusses the duality observed in the behaviour of possessive nà in Sotho-Tswana languages.