Abstract
This paper is concerned with the diachronic development of the placement of Czech possessive adjectives relative to the head noun in Old and Middle Czech. At the same time, the aim of this study is also to introduce a possible way of approaching complex language data.
We base our analysis on cross-linguistic synchronic generalizations regarding possessor placement which connect monolexemic possessors (which are high on the nominal animacy hierarchy) to the prenominal position. A sample of 1417 possessive adjectives obtained from available sources of Old and Middle Czech texts was annotated for an array of semantic and syntactic variables.
The relationship between these variables and the possessor placement was analysed using classification trees and random forests. The results do not support the synchronic generalizations.
We interpret this finding by positing two frequent, lexically partially filled constructions, N Kristův 'N of Christ' and syn N-ův 'son of N'. We conclude that the patterns observed in the data can be explained by the interaction of extralinguistic socio-cultural factors and the effects of frequency and similarity in these two constructions.