THE FIRST AND SECOND PERSON AFFIXES IN POSSESSIVE CONSTRUCTIONS OF THE TATAR, BASHKIR AND CHUVASH LANGUAGES: FREQUENCY OF USE
The category of possessiveness is a specific grammatical category typical of Turkic languages. However, as indicated in Turkic studies, in some Turkic languages, including Tatar, Bashkir, and Chuvash, the possessive affix is optional if the possessive construction includes the pronoun of the I or II person: минем дәфтәр (ем), синең дәфтәр (ең), безнең дәфтәр (ебез), сезнең дәфтәр (егез) . The main purpose of this paper is to analyze the frequency of use of possessive endings in Turkic languages, in particular, in Tatar, Bashkir, and Chuvash. The research shows that in all three languages the frequency of possessive endings depends on the person and the number. The affix of possessiveness of the first person plural is most often found in these languages, and the possessive affix of the second person singular has the lowest frequency. In our opinion, two factors account for this linguistic phenomenon: 1) the number of persons indicated by the personal pronoun; 2) the length of the possessive ending.