Universal 1584: kin terms and/or body parts > part-whole and/or spatial relations > culturally basic possessed items

Universal 1584: kin terms and/or body parts > part-whole and/or spatial relations > culturally basic possessed items

Original

Semantic scale of inalienable possession:

kin terms and/or body parts > part-whole and/or spatial relations > culturally basic possessed items (e.g. arrows, domestic animals)

Standardized

IF culturally basic possessed items are among ‘inalienables’, THEN part-whole and/or spatial relations are included in the ‘inalienable’ class as well.
IF part-whole and/or spatial relations are among ‘inalienables’, THEN kin terms and/or body parts are included in the ‘inalienable’ class as well.

Keywords

possession, inalienable, alienable, kinship

Domain

inflection, syntax, semantics

Type

implicational hierarchy

Status

achronic

Quality

absolute

Basis

every language family and language isolate attested for North America (excluding only those six: Alsea, Beothuk, Cayuse, Kalapuyan, Molala, Yanan), also North Eurasian language families and several Australian languages

Source

Nichols 1988: 572

Counterexamples

In Ewe (Kwa, Niger-Congo) and Mandarin (Sinitic, Sino-Tibetan), spatial orientation terms appear alone at the top of the hierarchy as the most inalienable category (Chappell & McGregor 1995: 8)