Possession in Languages of Europe and North and Central Asia

This paper illustrates the grammaticalisation of the preposition de as a genitive marker through the analysis of Early Medieval notary deeds written in northern and central Italy ( Codice diplomatico longobardo , CDL ). In Classical Latin, de is used mainly as a verbal adjunct; its usage at the noun phrase level is sporadic and semantically determined, conveying mainly the meaning of ‘source’. By the time of the CDL documents, de has a more grammaticalised status and a higher frequency, but has