There are different nominal possessive constructions, and they may include a variety of grammatical formatives:

Possessive pronouns, indices and determiners

As with other kinds of pro-forms, a possessive determiner (like Engl. my) accompanies a (lexical-syntactic) nominal expression, while a possessive pronoun (like Engl. mine) represents a noun phrase consisting of a dummy possessum head and a possessive determiner. In either case, the gloss starts with POSS, as in .

For the gloss, it does not matter whether such a possessive formative is a word, as in , or a (possessive) affix, as in Turkish ev-im (house-POSS.1.SG) ‘my house’.

The function of a possessive determiner may be fulfilled by a specialized form like Engl. my and as in , or just by a personal pronoun in the function of a possessive attribute or complement, as in . In the latter case, the language lacks a possessive determiner.

A gloss starting with Poss, like Poss.1.Sg, reads: ‘the possessor of the nominal expression determined (or modified) by this formative is of person and number P’, where P is the set of pronominal features following the dot (here: first person singular). Such a gloss is analogous to a gloss like Obj.1.Sg on a verb form, meaning: ‘the object of this verb is of first person singular’.

Genitive

The genitive is a case relator on a nominal expression X meaning ‘X’s, of X’. The gloss is GEN. On nouns or noun phrases, the genitive typically is a member of a paradigm of case relators.

For a possessive pronoun or determiner, there are generally two ways of signalling the possessive relation:

1. It may bear a genitive case morpheme like a lexical noun. This morphological composition is then brought out by the gloss, as in .
2. It bears no genitive, and instead its root is possessive. Then the gloss starts with POSS, as in and .

Proprietive

The proprietive is a case relator or a derivational formative on a nominal expression X meaning ‘(provided) with X, having X’, as in . A possible gloss is PPV.

The proprietive differs from the genitive in lacking an attributive function. I.o.w., proprietive expressions are not primarily adnominal dependents.

Dummy possessum

A dummy possessum is a formative forming, together with a possessive attribute or determiner X, a construction with the generic meaning ‘property (of X), belonging to X’. A useful gloss may be PRY.

Relationalizer

A relationalizer is a formative which forms, together with a nominal expression – commonly, a noun – X, a construction with the meaning ‘X of’. It renders X relational, i.e. capable of taking a possessive dependent on the model of government. A possible gloss is RLR. above is an example.