Southeast Solomonic: A View from Possessive Constructions

Investigation of possessive constructions in Southeast Solomonic languages offers additional evidence for the validity of the group and one of its primary subgroups, as argued by Pawley (1972). Evidence for Southeast Solomonic is counterevidence to Blust's (1984) claim that the Cristobal-Malaitan and the Nuclear Micronesian languages form a group. The investigation also reveals a gradual reduction in the number of contrasts originally expressed by three subtypes of indirect possessive constructions in Proto-Oceanic, with complete neutralization of the contrasts in some languages.