This thesis contributes to the debate on the link between a transitive verb corresponding to 'need' and the verb of possession in the world’s languages. Specifically, I analyze data mainly from Ewe and three Ghana-Togo Mountain (GTM) languages; Likpe, Tafi, and Logba. First, I report that Ewe expresses predicative possession using a wide range of structures. Prominent among these structures is an intransitive locative construction in which the possessee c-commands the possessor. This characterization situates Ewe in the B-languages group of the have/be dichotomy. Second, I demonstrate, drawing on compelling pieces of evidence from object shift in nominalization, object shift in inceptive aspectual constructions, object extraction in wh-movement, and the nominative-accusative paradigm, that Ewe has a transitive verb 'hiã' corresponding to 'need'. These facts pose a challenge to Harves and Kayne’s (2012) claim that all languages that have a transitive verb corresponding to need are languages that have an accusative-Case-assigning verb of possession. Third, I have shown that predicative possessees are not licensed in like manner as transitive objects, contra Halpert and Diercks’ (2012) prediction that all languages that have a transitive verb corresponding to 'need' are languages in which predicative possessees are licensed in the same manner as transitive objects. Fourth, I show that data from the three GTM languages also pose a challenge to the predictions in Harves & Kayne (2012) and Halpert & Diercks (2016). Finally, I suggest that the presence or absence of a transitive verb corresponding to 'need' is not necessarily contingent on a transitive verb of possession, and therefore, the optionality of a transitive 'need' in H-languages should be extended to B-languages.

The goal of this work is to describe the domain of predicative possession in South Saami, a Finno-Ugric language spoken in Sweden and Norway. Data has been elicited from native speakers of South Saami, and the analysis has been carried out within a general functional-typological framework. In South Saami, four different predicative possessive constructions are used: (1) a habeo-verb construc­tion, (2a) a genitive possessive without copula, (2b) a genitive possessive with copula, and (3) a locational possessive. The latter is not described in the grammars. The have-possessive and the genitive possessives occur frequently and are used to encode all notions of possession. The use of the locational possessive is restricted to inanimate possessors. Distri­bution of the constructions varies among the speakers. Examples for the have-possessive construction present the greatest structural variation. The four possessive constructions are set within a typological context. / Denna studie beskriver predikativ possession i sydsamiska, ett finsk-ugriskt språk som talas i Sverige och Norge. Materialet till studien eliciterades från sex sydsamiska modersmålstalare. Analysen genomfördes inom en typologisk-funktionalistisk inriktning. Analysen visar att i sydsamiskan används fyra olika konstruktioner för att uttrycka predikativt ägande: (1) en habeo-verbkonstruktion, (2a) en genitivkonstruktion utan kopula, (2b) en genitivkonstruktion med kopula, och (3) en lokativkonstruktion. Den senare omnämns inte i de existerande gramma­tiska beskrivningarna, och konstruktionen är begränsad till inanimata ägare. Verbkonstruk­tionen och de båda genitiv­konstruktionerna före­kommer frekvent i materialet och används för alla possessiva relationer. Fördelningen av de olika konstruktionerna varierar hos talarna. Den största strukturella variationen återfinns i habeo-verbkonstruktionen. De fyra possessivkonstruktionerna sätts i uppsatsen in i en typologisk kontext.