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According to the present state of research, there seems to be no language which shows possessive classifiers and possessive verbs corresponding to English "to have" at the same time. In classifier languages predicative possession is expressed by verbless clauses, i.e. by existential clauses ("there is my possessed item"), equative clauses ("the possessed item is mine" "that is my possessed item") or by locative expressions ("the possessed item is near me"), in which the classifier in the case of non-inherent possession marks the nature of the relationship. While most Melanesian languages, as for instance Fijian, Lenakel, Pala and Tolai are classifier languages, Nguna, a Melanesian language spoken in Vanuatu, only shows traces of the Melanesian possessive classifier system, but, in contrast to the other Melanesian languages, it has a possessive verb, namely 'peani' "to have". In order to show how the Nguna possessive constructions deviate from the common Melanesian type, we shall start with a brief description of the Melanesian possessive constructions in general, and that of Fijian in particular.
Defined as a general inner-linguistic function, modality pervades language and there can thus be no strictly nonmodal predicative expressions. We shall, however, in what follows, keep to grammatical tradition and exclude declarative and interrogative sentences in the indicative mood from consideration. Although a thorough study of the development of modal negation should prove most rewarding, we must renounce such an attempt out of space limits. […] [W]e shall be concerned with the formal linguistic devices employed by the child for expressing modality in various languages and the functions these serve, i.e. how they are used. Only by the conjoint study of form and function can one hope to arrive at a fair understanding of how the modalizing function develops in the ontogenesis of language.