Tables
1 The factors explored with respect to possessive constructions in Danish and Swedish 4
2 Attributive possessive constructions in Danish and Swedish 37
3 Prepositions used in possessive contexts in Danish and Swedish 45
4 Swedish regular possessive pronouns 48
5 Danish regular possessive pronouns 48
6 Animacy hierarchy based on Rosenbach (2008: 153) 75
7 Animacy hierarchy used in the present study 76
8 Periodization of Danish and Swedish used in the present study 86
9 Number of words in the diachronic corpus 88
10 Number of possessive NP s tagged in the diachronic corpus 88
11 Number of words in the contemporary corpus 95
12 Number of possessive NP s tagged in the contemporary corpus 95
13 The annotation variables and tags defined for the present project 106
14 Frequencies of the Danish genitive and prepositional construction over time 115
15 Frequencies of the Swedish genitive and prepositional construction over time 115
16 Frequencies of the Danish pronominal constructions over time 116
17 Frequencies of the Swedish pronominal constructions over time 117
18 Genitive case endings in the Old Danish and Old Swedish texts 118
19 Position of possessors in the genitive in Period I (1250–1350) of Old Danish and Old Swedish 124
20 Position of regular possessive pronouns in Period I (1250–1350) of Old Danish and Old Swedish 126
21 Position of reflexive possessive pronouns in Period I (1250–1350) of Old Danish and Old Swedish 127
22 Frequencies of PP s and the genitive construction over the periods 133
23 Animacy hierarchy used in the present study 141
24 Animacy of possessors in the genitive in Danish 141
25 Animacy of possessors in the genitive in Swedish 142
26 Overall number of animate and inanimate referents in Danish and Swedish corpora 144
27 Definiteness of possessors in the genitive in Danish 148
28 Definiteness of possessors in the genitive in Swedish 148
29 Sum of definite and bare NP s in the genitive and overall in the Swedish and Danish corpora 152
30 Topicality of possessors in the genitive in Danish and Swedish 155
31 Topicality in combinations of possessor (PR) and possessum (PM) in the genitive construction in Danish and Swedish 156
32 Distribution of definiteness values among given and new possessors in the genitive in Danish and Swedish 157
33 Length of PR and PM phrases in Danish and Swedish genitive constructions 160
34 Characteristics of a typical possessor referent in genitive in Danish and Swedish 168
35 Frequencies of notions of possession in Danish and Swedish (1250–1700) 169
36 Relative importance of factors influencing occurrence of pronouns in Danish 180
37 Relative importance of factors influencing occurrence of pronouns in Swedish 182
38 Relative importance of factors influencing the selection of possessive constructions in Danish 185
39 Relative importance of factors influencing the selection of possessive constructions in Swedish 187
40 The frequency of the S-Genitive and the prepositional construction in the contemporary corpus 190
41 The frequency of regular and reflexive pronouns in the contemporary corpus 190
42 Comparison of the diachronic and contemporary data – frequencies of the (S-)Genitive and PP s 191
43 Comparison of the diachronic and contemporary data – frequencies of pronouns 191
44 The frequency of Danish and Swedish S-Genitive and PP constructions 193
45 Animacy of possessors in Danish 195
46 Animacy of possessors in Swedish 196
47 Distribution of possessive NP s according to animacy of possessor and possessum phrases in Dahl and Fraurud (1996: 55) 197
48 Distribution of S-Genitive NP s according to animacy of possessor and possessum phrases in Danish 198
49 Distribution of S-Genitive NP s according to animacy of possessor and possessum phrases in Swedish 199
50 Distribution of prepositional constructions according to animacy of possessor and possessum phrases in Danish 201
51 Distribution of prepositional constructions according to animacy of possessor and possessum phrases in Swedish 202
52 Definiteness of possessors in Danish 204
53 Definiteness of possessors in Swedish 207
54 Topicality of possessors in Danish 213
55 Topicality of possessors in Swedish 214
56 Topicality of possessums in Danish 215
57 Topicality of possessums in Swedish 215
58 Topicality in combinations of possessor (PR) and possessum (PM) in the S-Genitive and PP constructions in Danish and Swedish 217
59 Distribution of definiteness values among given and new possessors in the S-Genitive in Danish and Swedish 219
60 Distribution of definiteness values among given and new possessors in prepositional constructions in Danish and Swedish 221
61 Length of PR and PM phrases in Danish 222
62 Length of PR and PM phrases in Swedish 225
63 Semantic notions of possession in Danish 229
64 Semantic notions of possession in Swedish 231
65 Number in possessors in Danish 239
66 Number in possessors in Swedish 239
67 Countability of possessors in Danish 240
68 Countability of possessors in Swedish 241
69 Concreteness of possessors in Danish 242
70 Concreteness of possessors in Swedish 242
71 Possessors across registers in Danish 244
72 Possessors across registers in Swedish 244
73 Characteristics of typical possessor referents in contemporary Danish and Swedish 245
74 Binary logistic regression model for the Danish S-Genitive vs. PP s 248
75 Binary logistic regression model for the Swedish S-Genitive vs. PP s 254
76 Relative importance of factors influencing the selection of the S-Genitive in Danish 260
77 Relative importance of factors influencing the selection of the S-Genitive in Swedish 262
78 Characteristics of a typical possessor referent in genitive in Danish and Swedish 267
79 Characteristics of typical possessor referents in contemporary Danish and Swedish 268
Figures
1 The relations of possession 17
2 Periodization of the North Germanic languages before 1100, based on Skrzypek & Piotrowska & Jaworski (2021) 84
3 Periodization of Swedish after 1100 85
4 Periodization of Danish after 1100 85
5 Timeline and genres in the diachronic corpus 87
6 A possessive construction annotated in DiaPoss 97
7 Automatically generated tagging suggestions in DiaPoss 98
8 The exported data from DiaPoss 98
9 The search window for combinations of tags in DiaPoss 99
10 An example of a simple search in DiaPoss – definite and human possessors in the s-genitive found in Modern Swedish 100
11 Prepositions used in possessive PP s in Danish texts (1250–1700) 138
12 Prepositions used in possessive PP s in Swedish texts (1250–1700) 139
13 Distribution of the genitive construction and prepositional phrases among spatial possessors 143
14 Relative frequencies of animate and inanimate referents among possessors in the genitive and all referents in the Danish corpus 145
15 Relative frequencies of animate and inanimate referents among possessors in the genitive and all referents in the Swedish corpus 145
16 Relative frequencies of definite and bare referents among possessors in the genitive and all referents in the Danish corpus 153
17 Relative frequencies of definite and bare referents among possessors in the genitive and all referents in the Swedish corpus 153
18 Lengths of Danish PR and PM phrases in the genitive 161
19 Lengths of Swedish PR and PM phrases in the genitive 162
20 Relative frequencies of singular and plural referents among possessors in the genitive and all referents in Danish and Swedish 163
21 Relative frequencies of countable and mass referents among possessors in the genitive and all referents in Danish and Swedish 165
22 Relative frequencies of concrete and abstract referents among possessors in the genitive and all referents in Danish and Swedish 166
23 Relative frequency of possessive notions in four periods of the Danish corpus 173
24 Relative frequency of possessive notions in four periods of the Swedish corpus 173
25 Relative frequency of possessive notions across the three genres in Danish 176
26 Relative frequency of possessive notions across the three genres in Swedish 176
27 Classification tree for the Danish pronouns 179
28 Classification tree for the Swedish pronouns 181
29 Classification tree for Danish possessive constructions 184
30 Classification tree for Swedish possessive constructions 186
31 Distribution of possessum definiteness values in 261 Danish prepositional phrases 211
32 Distribution of possessum definiteness values in 572 Swedish prepositional phrases 212
33 Possessor length in Danish 223
34 Possessum length in Danish 223
35 Possessor length in Swedish 225
36 Possessum length in Swedish 226
37 Relative frequency of possessive notions across text registers in Danish 232
38 Relative frequency of possessive notions across text registers in Swedish 233
39 Frequency of prepositions used in the PP construction in Danish 234
40 Frequency of prepositions used in the PP construction in Swedish 235
41 Prepositions by notions of possession in Danish 236
42 Prepositions by notions of possession in Swedish 237
43 Classification tree displaying the Danish dataset 258
44 Classification tree displaying the Swedish dataset 261
45 Preference structure for the Danish and Swedish S-Genitive 271
46 Proportion of animate and inanimate PR referents in the (S-)Genitive construction in both corpora 275