On Sun, 02 Dec 2001 13:31:02 +0100, Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
<mcv@...> wrote:

>I gave five clear examples of genitives derived from adjectives, and
>there are many more (e.g. Basque gen. -ko, adj.suff. -ko).

Basque is in fact a good example of how genitives can come about.

Basque has two kinds of genitives: a possessive genitive in -(ar)en,
and a relative genitive in -ko. E.g. <gizon-a-ren seme-a> "the (-a)
son (seme) of (-(r)en) the (-a) man (gizon)", "the man's son" vs.
<Bilbo'ko kale-ak> "the (-ak) streets (kale) of (-ko) Bilbao (Bilbo)".

The -ko genitive is a special case of the general adjectivizing suffix
-ko [which is why Larry Trask refuses to call it a "genitive"], which
can be added not just to nouns but to whole phrases, as in <idi bat
hegan ikusi zuelako kontua> (litt.: ox one to-fly to-see
that-he-had-it-KO tale-the, i.e. "the tale [of] that he had a seen an
ox fly". Here we see how an adjectivizing particle can develop (is in
the act of developing) into a genitive, which is of course nothing
strange: the genitive is by its very nature similar to an adjective,
in that both a noun in the genitive and an adjective function as
attributes to a noun.

The historical background of the possessive in -en is less clear (in
the prounous it has the form -e, which muddies the waters somewhat),
but one reasonable hypothesis is to link it to the locative in -(e)n,
e.g. through a circumlocution like "X is by/near me"-> "I have X"/"X
is mine" (gizonaren semea < the son [that is] by/near the father). On
the other hand, -(e)n is also a relativizing suffix in Basque (e.g.
<Bihar ikusiko dugun hiria oso zaharra da> "the town (hiria) which
we're (dugu-n) going to see (ikusi-ko) tomorrow (bihar) is (da) very
(oso) old (zaharra)"), and appears to be part of a number of
adjectives (e.g. urrun "far"), so the possessive might alternatively
have an adjectival origin as well.

(Example sentences from Larry Trask, "The history of Basque").

=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...