Possessive nouns
Many languages that allow the head-marked possessive inflection exclude a set of nouns from this phenomenon, termed non-possessible nouns. This closed class constitutes a limited set of nouns. In order to express the possession of such nouns, they must appear next to a specialized possessive noun. With an abstract or generic meaning, these specialized possessive nouns are marked for possession in place of the non-possessible noun. In some cases, they may be obligatorily marked for possession. In the majority of languages with such possessive nouns, this set constitutes a closed class, chosen based on the meaning of the non-possessible noun. These possessive nouns, therefore, function as possessive classifiers. In some languages, possessive (classifier) nouns have multiple paradigms to express pragmatic and semantic distinctions.
Types:
NoPx: The language does not have possessive marking.
NoNonpossN: Possessive marking exists, but non-possessible nouns do not exist.
NonpossN: Possessive marking exists, along with both non-possessible and possessive (classifier) nouns.1