Possessives within and beyond NP 197
person; substituting second person ezafe-3 possessors or changing the number does
not change the grammaticality patterns.)
(5) a. *[bez-neŋ [däftär-lär papka-sı-bız]]
we-gen notebook-pl folder-3-1pl
‘our folder for notebooks’
b. *[bez-neŋ [däftär-lär papka-bız-ı]]
we-gen notebook-pl folder-1pl-3
‘our folder for notebooks’
Grammatical options for expressing ‘our folder for notebooks’ involve having either
one of the two possible ezafe-markers. Example (6a) contains an ezafe-2 marker agree-
ing in third person with däftär-lär ‘notebooks’, but there is no ezafe-3 marker. By con-
trast, example (6b) contains an ezafe-3 marker agreeing in first person plural with
bez-neŋ ‘we-gen’, but there is no ezafe-2 marker.
(6) a. [bez-neŋ [däftär-lär papka-sı]]
we-gen notebook-pl folder-3
‘our folder for notebooks’
b. [bez-neŋ [däftär-lär papka]-bız]
we-gen notebook-pl folder-1.pl
‘our folder for notebooks’
If we consider the more general picture, however, ezafe-2 and ezafe-3 markers are not
equally omissible. Agreement with first/second person genitive possessors is generally
optional:^5
(7) bez-neŋ papka (cf. (1a))
we-gen folder
‘our folder’
But ezafe-3 marker expressing third person generally cannot be omitted:
(8) *ukučı-nıŋ papka (cf. (1b))
student-gen folder
intended: ‘a/the student’s folder’
By contrast, the ezafe-2 marker can be (or even must be) omitted in certain construc-
tions, such as those involving an attributivizer -lı (more on which below):
(9) a. tatar tel-le bala-lar
Tatar.person language-at tr child-pl
‘Tatar-speaking children’
- Unlike in Turkish, where (according to an anonymous reviewer) an omission of the
ezafe-3 agreement marker results in a difference in meaning, in Tatar examples with an ezafe-3
marker such as (1a) and those without such as (7) are synonymous.