The Emergence of The Possessive Determiner in Ancient Egyptian

This paper deals with adnominal possession in Ancient Egyptian, focusing on constructions involving a pronominal possessor. In early Egyptian, a single construction is attested: substantive (possessee) + bound person marker (possessor). From the 6th Dynasty onwards, a new construction, which is built from a demonstrative determiner, appears: pAy + bound person marker (possessor) + substantive (possessee). In order to describe the gradual encroachment of the innovative possessive determiner pAy-f on the older construction with the possessive bound person marker, this study proposes a discourse-oriented analysis, using the notion of ‘subjective deixis.’