Alienability as control: The case of Daakaka

•Alienability is not a lexical property of nouns, but of possessive relations.•In Daakaka, lexically non-relational nouns can be transitivized.•Transitivized nouns express inalienable relations.•Alienable relations are control relations.

The alienability distinction has long been recognized as one of the major factors driving differential marking of possession across languages. But opinions are divided on its exact nature. I will bring evidence from the Oceanic language Daakaka to support the hypotheses that the alienability distinction is not a lexical property of nouns but a property of possessive relations: speakers can choose between different constructions depending on the relation between the possessor and the possessed that they wish to express. Secondly, lexically non-relational nouns can be transitivized to express inalienable relations. And thirdly, the basic semantic notion behind alienable possession is control.