1. INTRODUCTION: POSSESSION IN ENGLISH
The saxon genitive is used principally for people, animals, countries, places and vehicles. Generally speaking it refers to something specific. Compare the doog?s food (the food of our dog) with dog food (food for dogs). There are three main ways of expressing possession in English:
§ The genitive case, with two variants: The ?s genitive
The OF genitive
§ Possessive pronouns
§ Verbs denoting possession. These verbs can be:
– Lexical verbs: belong, possess, own?
– Lexical HAVE (stative sense):
Notice that it is constructed as an auxiliary:
I have some books / I haven?t any books (BrE)
I don?t have any books (AmE)
Informal HAVE GOT is frequently preferred (specially in BrE) to HAVE in: – Negative sentences
– Interrogative sentences
I haven?t got any books
2. THE MEANING OF THE GENITIVE
POSSESSIVE GENITIVE
My son?s wife (my son has a wife)
The gravity of the earth (the earth has gravity)
SUBJECTIVE GENITIVE
The boy?s application (the boy applied)
The rise of the sun (the sun rose)
OBJECTIVE GENITIVE
The family?s support (?supports the family)
A statement of the facts (?stated the facts)
GENITIVE OF ORIGIN
The girl?s story (the girl told a story)
The wines of France (France produces wines)
DESCRIPTIVE GENITIVE
A women?s college (a college for women)
The degree of doctor (a doctoral degree)
GENITIVE OF MEASURE AND PARTITIVE GENITIVE
Ten days? absence (it lasted ten days)
The height of the tower (the measure of the tower)
APPOSITIVE GENITIVE
The city of York (York is a city)
The pleasure of meeting you (meeting you is a pleasure)
3. The ?S and OF genitives
The genitive has two forms:
3.1.- The ?S genitive (or the inflected genitive)
It is indicated in writing by apostrophe +s suffix or apostrophe only, after the modifying noun.
Modifying Noun Phrase + ?s + Head Noun Phrase
There was an extensive usage and variety forms in Old English: -s, -e, -a, -n, -ena. But in Middle English there was a decay of inflectional endings. Only the ?s survives into Modern English. The form:
* Singular nouns or irregular plurals >>> ? ?S ?
* Regular Plural >>> ? ? ? after the ?s ending (they have the zero genitive)
The Forms of the ?S genitive
In writing there are two forms:
1) One with apostrophe plus ?S (boy?s)
2) The other with apostrophe only (boys?)
In speech there are four forms: /Iz/, /z/, /s/ and zero.
1. /Iz/ if they end in sibilants (horse?s)
2. /z/ if they end in other voiced sounds (dog?s)
3. /s/ if they end in other voiceless sounds (cat?s)
4. zero: – With regular plural nouns
– With Greek names of more than one syllable
Socrates? wife / Euripides? plays
– Names ending in /z/. The normal pronunciation appears to be /Iz/ form, but the normal spelling with apostrophe only.
Burns? poems / Dickens? novels /(?dikinz) ?dikinzIz/
Jesus and Moses normally have the zero form of the spoken genitive but are written Jesus? and Moses? (as well as Jesus?s and Moses?s).
– In fixed expressions with ?for?sake?.
For goodness? sake / For conscience? sake
– Anciet Greek names and Roman singular names ending ?s take a simple apostrophe:
His Achiles? heel, Pythagoras? theorem
The rules for the pronunciation of the genitive ?S suffix as /Iz/, /z/ and /s/ are identical with the rules for the pronunciation of the ?S suffix in the plural of nouns and in the third person singular present of verbs.
3.2.- The OF genitive (or the periphrastic genitive)
It consists of:
Head Noun Phrase + OF + Modifying Noun Phrase
4. CHOICE OF THE ?S GENITIVE
The choice of genitive is mainly related to the gender class to which the possessor belongs.
Information focus must also be considered in the choice of the genitive:
The ship?s bell / The bell of the Titanic
Nouns classes that take the ?S genitive:
The main factor governing the choice of the one or the other genitive form is the animate or rather personal quality of the modifying noun. Nouns denoting people, whether proper names (John?s car) or ordinary count nouns (the student?s car), can always take the ?S genitive. It can also be used with animals.
1) Personal names: Sean?s car
2) Personal nouns: a man?s job
3) Collective nouns: the government?s conviction
4) Higher animals: the bull?s horns
5) Geographical and institutional names: Europe?s future
6) Temporal nouns: In two years? time
7) Nouns of special interest to human activity: the game?s history
8) Ships and boats: the ship?s bell
9) Expressions of money + worth: $ 2?s worth of stamps
10) Expressions with ?sake?: for heaven?s sake
11) Other expressions: a stone?s throw / the journey?s end / the water?s edge
12) Parts of the body: brain, mind, etc.
13) Cultural activities: orchestra, play, etc.
Place references
The Saxon genitive can be used alone (with no noun after it) to refer to a place, such as a company?s premises, a person?s house or a shop. There are many examples with this form: the butcher?s, the chemist?s, the dentist?s, the fishmonger?s, the grocer?s, the ironmonger?s, the vet?s. Notice that many companies these days are choosing not to write their commercial names with the apostrophe: Barclays, Harrods, Reuters.
5. CHOICE OF THE OF GENITIVE
The OF genitive is used with nouns that belong to the bottom part of the gender scale:
1) Inanimate nouns (that do not use the ?S genitive): the roof of the church
2) Lower animals
3) Adjectives used substantively with a plural value: the special feeling of the blind
4) In partitive and appositive expressions: part of the problem
However, there are some inanimate nouns that can be constructed with both forms:
The car?s engine / the engine of the car
The book?s title / the title of the book
Exceptions:
1) Temporal measure: a month?s rest
2) Some idioms: at arm?s length / his money?s worth
3) Newspapers headlines: Hollywood?s studios empty ? It gives prominence to the modifying noun (Hollywood)
6. GENITIVE CONSTRUCTIONS
6.1.- The GROUP GENITIVE
The saxon genitive (or genitive case or possessive case) is the name given to the peculiar English possessive structure invoving an ?s? and an apostrophe at the end of a word. The genitive can be added to the final part of a postmodifier in a noun phrase:
The teacher of music?s room (the room of the teacher of music)
An hour and a half?s talk
Although this is not normally acceptable when the postmodifier is a clause, there are some special cases in colloquial speech:
Old man what-do-you-call-him?s house
The man we met yesterday?s wife
When there are more than one possessor, a difference in meaning is possible.
Peter and John?s car (one car)
Peter?s and John?s car (two cars)
6.2.- The ELLIPTIC GENITIVE
The noun modified by the ?S genitive may be omitted if its identity is clear:
I parked my car next to John?s
A pronoun is necessary if the prepositional genitive is used:
The population of New York is greater than that of Chicago
The independent genitive (genitive with ellipsis) is specially used in expressions related to:
– Establishments: She must be at the butcher?s
– Commercial firms, professionals: I?ll be at the dentist?s
– Particular houses (where the person lives): I?ll be at Bill?s
– Institutions ? Public buildings: St Paul?s (Cathedral)
St James?s (palace)
Queen?s (college)
6.1.- The DOUBLE GENITIVE
This is a combination of the prepositional and the inflected genitive. It usually has a partitive meaning:
A work of Milton?s (one of Milton?s works)
A friend of his father?s
Some conditions:
1) The noun with the ?s genitive inflection must be both definite and personal:
An opera of Verdi?s
2) The noun preceding the OF-phrase cannot be a proper noun:
A friend of the doctor?s
3) And must have indefinite reference:
A daughter of Mrs Brown?s
But notice the familiar use of demonstratives:
That wife of mine
The daughter of Mrs Brown
7. POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS
Six pronouns present a three-case system: subjective, objective, and genitive. The genitive of pronouns is called possessive. There are two series: Attributive and Predicative.
Attributive series: POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVES
Form: my, your, his, her, its, our, your, their.
(archaic language: thy, thyne)
They are usually followed by a noun.
They may be used to refer to:
– Parts of the body: He has broken his arm
– Articles of clothing: He put on his sweater
– Things belonging to a person: He carried a stick in his right hand
It is used specially when the pronoun is functioning as an objective genitive:
I found the thought of her in my mind
It is also used with the impersonal your:
The toilets are always out of the room on your right
Predicative series: POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS
Mine, yours, his, hers, ours, yours, theirs
They replace the attributive series plus a noun.
They may be used in the same way as the double genitive: A friend of hers
They are the principal part of an OF-adjunct to a preceding noun (post-genitive):
I gave him an old raincoat of mine
Independent possessives are used to denote a person?s family ? always after the corresponding personal pronoun:
Best wishes for you and yours
Possessive yours is used in polite formulas:
Yours truly / Yours sincerely
POSSESSIVES AND THE ?EMPHATIC DETERMINATIVE OWN?
The possessive cannot be accompanied by any modifiers or determiners, except for the ?emphatic determinative own?. It intensifies the meaning of a possessive pronoun.
This book doesn?t belong to the library. It?s my own copy.
(The independent genitive cannot combine with ?own?: Yours own).
8. RELATIVE PRONOUN INDICATING POSSESSION
There is also a genitive case for the interrogative and relative pronoun WHO:
v INFLECTED: WHOSE, for personal and non-personal antecedent.
The man whose daughter? / The knife whose blade you broke
v PREPOSITIONAL: OF WHICH, mainly for non-personal antecedent.
The house the roof of which was damaged is?
v THAT, it involves placing OF at the end of the clause.
The knife that I broke the blade of
Down?s syndrome, Hobson?s choice, Halley?s comet, Hudson?s Bay, Parkinson?s disease, Roget?s Thesaurus
It?s a dog?s life, For donkey?s years, to stir up a hornet?s nest, the bee?s knees
Adam?s apple, Noah?s ark, the devil?s advocate, St. Valentine?s day, A nine days? wonder, to think your are God?s gift.
Your Achilles? heel, Pandora?s box, Venus? Flytrap
A baker?s dozen, an old wives? tale, in my mind?s eye, to be at Death?s door, it?s just a stone throw away, it?s all in a day?s work, to be child?s play, to be tied to your mother?s apron strings
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