Gestalt—the supercategory of Whole, Possessor, Org, and QuantityItem—applies directly for entities and eventualities which can loosely be conceptualized as containing or possessing something else, but for which neither Whole nor Possessor is a good fit.

Properties#

The holder of a property if the property is the governor:

• It was the chairman's fault/responsibility/right. 019

• the restaurant's extensive menu¹ [cf. Characteristic#006] 018

• a new way of thinking 015

• the amount of time allowed [but see QuantityItem#013] 009

• the food/service at this restaurant (Gestalt↝Locus) 010

By extension, a possessor of an item in relation to an attribute of that item Gestalt:

• my odometer number (= my car's odometer's number) [contrast Possessor#023] 017

The property may be a fact or detail conventionally associated with someone in life for which there is no more specific role:

• my address; my price range; my home team; my career; my record of accomplishments 016

Containers#

The construal Locus↝Gestalt is used for a container marked by the adposition:

• the room's 2 beds (Locus↝Gestalt) 011

Discourse-associated item#

A referent temporarily associated with another referent in the discourse and used to help identify it:

• Sam's dog (= the dog that Sam mentioned seeing earlier in the conversation) 012

Other possessive constructions#

Gestalt is the construal for many uses of possessive syntax where the semantic criteria for Possessor are not met. For instance, s-genitive marking of participant roles (Agent, Experiencer, etc.) are analyzed with Gestalt as the function. Moreover, the s-genitive construction, unlike of, is never analyzed with Whole as the function, so Whole↝Gestalt is used. See English Genitives/Possessives.