The central semantic relation typically associated with the genitive construction is that of possession. However, there are many different semantic relations expressed by genitive constructions, and specifically those with se and with van. Several semantic relations can be expressed by either construction, including non-prototypical relations such as subjective (2a) and attributive (2b) relations, and prototypical relations such as kin terms (2c), body parts (2d), part-whole (2e), and of course ownership (2f). There are also measure genitives (2g, 2h), where the possessor indicates a measure of some sort applied to the possessum.

There are other semantic relations only expressed by van constructions, such as appositives (3a), partitives (3b), and descriptives genitives (3c). Both se and van constructions also feature in fixed expressions, such as (3d) and (3e).

The possessor in genitive constructions can refer to a number of different entities – some are humans (2a-c), some are animals (2d), temporal (2h), or inanimate objects (2e). Further types of possessors include collectives (4a) and locatives (4b).

The NPs in genitive constructions can both be fairly complex. Sometimes they are coordinated or modified (5a-c), even with a PP (5d).

Genitive constructions can also be nested within one another. In (6a) there are two se constructions; in (6b) a se construction in a van construction, and in (6c) a van construction in a se construction. In (6d) it becomes clear that there can be multiple nested genitives, with three van constructions nested in one another.