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UNIT 16
THE EXPRESSION OF POSSESSION
OUTLINE1. INTRODUCTION. 1.1. Aims of the unit. 1.2. Notes on bibliography.
2. A HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE EXPRESSION OF POSSESSION. 2.1. Changes from Old English to Middle English.
2.1.1. The phonological change: from a synthetic to an analytic system. 2.1.2. The morphological change: genitive case formation.
2.1.3. The syntactic change: the function of genitive case. 2.2. Changes from Middle English to Modern English.
3. A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE EXPRESSION OF POSSESSION. 3.1. Linguistic levels involved in the notion of possession.
3.2. On defining possession: what and how.
3.3. Grammar categories involved: open vs. closed classes.
4. THE EXPRESSION OF POSSESSION. 4.1. Morphology and possession.
4.1.1. Nouns. 4.1.2. Verbs. 4.1.3. Adjectives. 4.1.4. Pronouns. 4.1.5. Prepositions. 4.2. Phonology and possession. 4.3. Syntax and possession.
4.3.1. Main syntactic structures. 4.3.1.1. Saxon genitive structure. 4.3.1.2. Of-phrase structure. 4.3.2. Other syntactic structures.
4.3.2.1. The genitive with ellipsis. 4.3.2.2. The double genitive. 4.3.2.3. The group genitive. 4.3.2.4. Idiomatic expressions. 4.4. Semantics and possession.
4.4.1. Possessive genit ive. 4.4.2. Appositive genitive. 4.4.3. Subjective genitive. 4.4.4. Objective genitive. 4.4.5. Descriptive genitive. 4.4.6. Partitive genitive. 4.4.7. Genitive of measure.
2/28 4.4.8. Genitive of origin.
5. EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS.
6. CONCLUSION.
3/28 1. INTRODUCTION.
1.1. Aims of the unit.
Unit 16 is primarily aimed to examine in English the different ways of expressing possession,
namely achieved by means of nouns, and also by verbs, adjectives, pronouns, prepositions and other types of clause structures. In doing so, the study will be divided into six main chapters.
Thus, Chapter 2 provides a historical account of the expression of possession from its very origins up to the present situation in order to ease the subsequent analysis of it. So, the expression of possession is addressed from two main periods in ancient times: first, the period from Old English (OE) to Middle English (ME) and, second, the period from Middle English to Modern English (ModE).
Within the first period, (1) from OE to ME, we shall approach those changes which, as a chain reaction, shaped the expression of ‘ownership’ into what we know today. These changes were due, first, to phonological reasons which emerged from the change from a synthetic to an analytic system; second, to morphological changes which gave way to the genitive case formation; and finally, to syntactic changes where the function of genitive case was established. Within the second period, (2) from ME to ModE, we shall approach the changes which finally shaped the notion of possession into what we know it today, with little difference in shape.
Chapter 3 then provides a theoretical framework for the notion of possession, first, by examining
the linguistic levels involved; second, by introducing the notion of possession in terms of how it is achieved and what it is; and finally, by presenting the grammatical categories involved in it. Once this key terminology is defined in syntactic terms, the reader is prepared for the descriptive account on the expression of possession in subsequent chapters.
Chapter 4 presents and defines the notion of possession with respect to four relevant fields:
morphology, phonology, syntax and semantics in order to get further details about it. Thus, in the first place, we examine morphology and possession by reviewing the formation of nouns, verbs, adjectives, pronouns and prepositions involved and, secondly, from the phonological field, we examine the phonological features of these grammatical categories when pronounced.
Third, the expression of possession is analysed according to syntactic terms, and thus divided into two types of structures: first, the two main syntactic structures (the saxon genitive and the of-phrase structure) and second, other syntactic structures among which we may mention, first, the genitive with ellipsis; second, the double genitive; third, the group genitive; and fourth, specific idiomatic expressions. And finally, the notion of possession is classified in semantic terms by means of which we distinguish eight main types of genitive structures: thus, possessive, appositive, subjective, objective, descriptive, partitive, genitive of measure and, finally, genitive of origin.
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Once the notion of possession is established within the historical and linguistic framework, Chapter
5, then, provides an educational framework for the expression of possession within our current
school curriculum, followed by Chapter 6 which shall draw a conclusive summary of all the points involved in this study. Finally, in Chapter 7 , bibliography will be listed in alphabetical order.
1.2. Notes on bibliography.
In order to offer an insightful analysis and survey on the expression of possession in English, we shall deal with the most relevant works in the field, both old and current, and in particular, influential books which have assisted for years students of English as a foreign language in their study of this issue. For instance, a historical introduction is mainly given by Baugh, A. & Cable, A
History of the English Language (1993) and Conde Silvestre & Hernández Campoy, An Introduction to the History of the English Language II: Middle and Modern English (1998).
Furthermore, a theoretical framework for the expression of possession is namely drawn from the field of sentence analysis, that is, from the work of Flor Aarts and Jan Aarts (University of Nijmegen, Holland) in English Syntactic Structures (1988), whose material has been tested in the classroom and developed over a number of years; also, another essential work is that of Rodney Huddleston, English Grammar, An Outline (1988).
Other classic references which offer an account of the most important and central grammatical constructions and categories in English regarding the expression of possession, are Quirk & Greenbaum, A University Grammar of English (1973); Sánchez Benedito, Gramática Inglesa (19759; Thomson & Martinet, A Practical English Grammar (1986); and Greenbaum & Quirk, A
Student’s Grammar of the English Language (1990).
More current approaches to notional grammar are David Bolton and Noel Goodey, Grammar
Practice in Context (1997); John Eastwood, Oxford Practice in Grammar (1999); Sidney
Greenbaum, The Oxford Reference Grammar (2000); Gerald Nelson, English: An Essential
Grammar (2001); Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey K. Pullum, The Cambridge Grammar of the English Languag e (2002); and. Angela Downing and Philip Locke, A University Course in English Grammar (2002).
2. A HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE EXPRESSION OF POSSESSION.
In this section, we shall provide a historical account of the expression of possession in order to fully understand the current expression of possession in Modern English (ModE). In doing so, we shall divide our historical account into two parts: first, we shall trace back to the historical period from
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Old English (OE) to Middle English (ME) where relevant changes in morphology and syntax took place; and second, the period from ME to Modern English (ModE) where those changes in ME morphology and syntax made the expression of possession change and develop towards the paradigm we know today: the paradigm of the genitive case and the of-phrase, together with other structures.
2.1. Changes from Old English to Middle English.
Therefore, in order to historically review the expression of possession, we shall offer first a brief account of those changes from Old English to Middle English which took place as a chain reaction: first, (1) phonological changes which favoured the development from a synthetic system into an analytic one; second, (2) general changes in ME morphology which affected case formation; and third, (3) general changes in ME syntax which affected the function of cases, and especially, the genitive case.
2.1.1. The phonological change: from a synthetic to an analytic system.
First of all, several phonological changes gave way to the transformation of an originally synthetic system (inflectional endings) into an analytic one (word order to indicate case). In other words, the levelling of all OE unstressed vowels to schwa during the period from OE to ME and their eventual loss led to a systematic reduction of OE noun declensions.
The effect of the phonological erasing of unstressed vowels in final syllables meant that the language could not simply rely on case endings (synthetic means) in order to mark the function of words in the sentence but needed to take account of analytic means, like the use of prepositions and a relatively fixed word order. It is worth noting that, in general, the OE synthetic genitive coexists in ME with the analytic of-phrase.
2.1.2. The morphological change: genitive case formation.
Therefore, the effect of the phonological erasing of unstressed vowels in final syllables was the basic reason for the new pattern of genitive case formation, which in ME was mainly realized by noun morphology. Consequently, once grammatical gender was broken down, there was no longer a necessity to keep so many noun patterns and the most dominant noun declensions, that is, those of the formerly OE masculine/neuter –a stem declension.
Generally, the new endings marking the case and number in ME nouns were analogically levelled to common endings. For instance, -es for all cases in the plural: nominative, accusative, genitive and dative (i.e. from OE ‘domas (nom), domas (acc), doma (gen) domun (dat)’ to ME ‘doomes’ in all
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‘dom (nom), dom (acc), domes (gen), dome (dat)’ to ME ‘doom (nom), doom (acc), doomes (gen), domme (dat))’.
Thus, for those marking genitive, ME nouns reduced the original OE endings –e, -an, -a in singular and –a, -an, -ena in plural, to schwa and then to a complete loss. Instead, the prominent masculine/neuter ending –es was analogically extended to the singular genitive case, and also to the plural genitive case, possibly due to its coincidence with the nominative, accusative and dative plural regular ending –es (from OE –as). For instance, OE ‘domes’ (singular) and ‘doma’ (plural) to ME ‘doomes’ (singular and plural), meaning ‘of the house(s)’.
However, we find some exceptions to this general rule. Thus, in singular, rests of early OE declensions may be traced back in the existence of current feminine –s less genitive (i.e. Lady day). Another exception to the regular ending –es is the lack of genitive ending with proper names (i.e.
Bush army ), nouns of family relationship (i.e. my brother wife) or when the following word starts
with a sibilant consonant (i.e Charles book).
Regarding plural nouns, despite the fact that the ending –es already appears in Northern dialects in the late twelfth century, in the south, another genitive case ending (OE –an, ME –en) resisted until the fourteenth century (i.e. Englene lande=the land of the Angles).
2.1.3. The syntactic change: the function of genitive case.
Yet, the decay of inflectional endings also had an influence on syntax. So long as OE inflections served to indicate the cases of nouns, these were quite often accompanied by prepositions so as to express function with greater clarity. In fact, word order was comparatively unimportant in OE, but when ME nominative and accusative cases turned out to be identical in form, a fixed word order was necessary to make clear the relevant distinction of cases at the sentence level.
This new syntactic pattern led to a general paradigm in singular and plural nouns and to the reorganization of the whole OE system on the basis of noun morphology. Thus, regarding singular nouns, in nominative cases the OE endings –e (i.e. sunne=sun) and –u (i.e. lufu=love) disappeared, except for a few cases which kept the spelling –e (i.e. ME love ) as well as accusative and dative cases (OE –a, -e, -an) which were also lost in ME. Therefore, the functions previously associated to these cases are then expressed either by fixed word order or by means of prepositions, use which became even more marked in the modern English period (Brook, 1958).
2.2. Changes from Middle English to Modern English.
Moreover, we shall review the changes which took place from Middle English to Modern English so as to understand the current expression of possession in English. Notice that the changes in this
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period are the result of those changes mentioned above, such as the erasing of unstressed vowels in final syllables and consequently, the new shape of noun morphology. These changes did not appear all of a sudden and developed into the patterns we know today, that is, in syntactic terms, the genitive case in its different ways of expression.
Following Baugh & Cable (1993), this period witnessed particular developments regarding the genitive case, such as the his-genitive. In fact, in ME the –es of the genitive, being unaccented, was frequently written and pronounced –is, -ys, which became often identical to the pronoun his when unstressed. Therefore, since there was no difference in pronunciation between the forms ‘stonis’ and ‘stone is (his)’, as early as the thirteenth century the ending started to be written separately as though the possessive case were a contraction of a noun and the pronoun his.
However, although this notion was long prevalent in the eighteenth century, people were still troubled by the illogical consequences of this usage (i.e. my sister her watch) when referring to the contraction of his in expressions with feminine nouns (i.e. a woman’s beauty, a virgin’s delicacy). Yet, it was a fact that the true source was the Old English genitive, but the error was detected to be the use of the apostrophe (‘s), which we still retain as a graphic convenience to mark the possessive.
3. A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE EXPRESSION OF POSSESSION.
Before describing in detail the different ways of expressing possession in English, it is relevant to establish first a theoretical framework for this notion, since it must be described in grammatical terms. In fact, this introductory chapter aims at answering questions such as, first, where this notion is to be found within the linguistic level; second, what it describes and how and, third, which
grammar categories are involved in its description at a functional level.
3.1. Linguistic levels involved in the notion of possession.
In order to offer a linguistic description of the notion of possession, we must confine it to particular levels of analysis so as to focus our attention on this particular aspect of language. Yet, although there is no consensus of opin ion on the number of levels to be distinguished, the usual description of a language comprises four major components: phonology, grammar, lexicon, and semantics, out of which we get five major levels: phonological, morphological and syntactic, lexical, and semantic (Huddleston, 1988).
First, the phonology describes the sound level, that is, how to pronounce the genitive case in particular instances (i.e. Charles’s car). Secondly, since the two most basic units of grammar are the word and the sentence, the component of grammar involves the morphological level (i.e.
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Third, the lexicon, or lexical level, lists vocabulary items which belong to different grammatical categories but have in common the expression of possession.
Finally, another dimension between the study of linguistic form and the study of meaning is semantics, or the semantic level, to which all four of the major components are related. We must not forget that a linguistic description which ignores meaning is obviously incomplete, and in particular, when dealing with the notion of expression, since it shall indicate us whether we are referring to people (by means of saxon genitive) or things (by means of of-phrases).
Therefore, we must point out that each of the linguistic levels discussed above has a corresponding component when analysing the notion under study. Thus, phonology deals with pronunciation of the genitive case when using ‘s (i.e. William’s, Jack’s); morphology deals with the genitive case formation (i.e. the addition of ‘s); and syntax deals with which combinations of words constitute grammatical strings and which do not (i.e. NOT: the Betty’s car BUT Betty’s car).
On the other hand, lexis deals with the expression of possession regarding the choice between different types of grammatical categories (i.e. verbs: ‘I possess this house’; possessive pronouns:
‘this house is mine’; possessive adjectives: ‘this is my house’, etc ), and other means such as other
specific realizations of these notions (i.e. a friend of my father’s) or idiomatic expressions (i.e. a ten
minutes’ walk, at a stone’s throw, for heaven’s sake); and finally, semantics deals with meaning
where syntactic and morphological levels do not tell the difference (i.e. genitive case so as to refer
to people (Jane’s brother, Jane’s car) vs. of -phrase structure so as to refer to inanimate things (the roof of the house, the Houses of Parliament)).
2.2. On defining possession: what and how.
On defining the term ‘possession’ we must link this notion (what it is) to the grammar categories which express it (how it is showed). Actually, in English the term ‘possession’ is intended to answer to such questions as ‘Whose is this?’, ‘What do you possess?’ and ‘What are your personal
possessions?’ so as to indicate ‘ownership’ or ‘something possessed’, as the things someone or
something ‘possesses’, that is, possessions, property, state (such as land, buildings, a business), personal effects or belongings (movable possessions: a video game, a mobile phone), family relationships (my mother’s cousin ) and abstract relationships (Jim’s patience is amazing).
Actually, the idea of ‘possession’ is defined as ‘the fact and action of having or possessing something’, which may be either physical, referring to people (a brother, two sisters), animals (a dog, five horses) and things (money, a nice house); or abstract (greed, soul). This idea of possession is world widespread since all languages express it though in different ways, for instance, using
of-phrase structures and adding the genitive case ending ‘s in English and the use of preposition ‘de’
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Moreover, the notion of possession is, psychologically speaking, one of the most primitive instincts of human beings and, therefore, historically present in many events, as for instance, the biblical case of Salomon, the third Hebrew king (970-931 BC) when deciding, on two mothers who claimed for the same baby as their son, who the baby belonged to; the longing for possessing new territories in America by Cristobal Columbus in 1492; or more recently, the buying of our personal belongings nowadays.
Regarding how possession is expressed in English, it is mainly drawn by two devices: the ‘saxon genitive’ and the of-phrase structure (to be developed in detail in subsequent chapters) which work at the level of the grammatical category of nouns since the notion of possession namely implies the mention of people, things and animals. Moreover, there are other lexically specific grammatical categories involved, such as possessive pronouns, possessive adjectives, verbs and prepositions as well as other specific idiomatic expressions and phrase structures in order to convey the meaning of ‘ownership’.
2.3. Grammar categories involved: open vs. closed classes.
So far, in order to confine the notion of possession to particular grammatical categories, we must review first the difference between open and closed classes since possession cues involve both. Yet, grammar categories in English can be divided into two major sets called open and closed classes. The open classes are verbs, nouns, adjectives and adverbs, and are said to be unrestricted since they allow the addition of new members to their membership, whereas the closed classes are the rest: prepositions, conjunctions, articles (definite and indefinite ), numerals, pronouns, quantifiers and interjections, which belong to a restricted class since they do not allow the creation of new members.
Then, as we can see, when taking possessive relations to phrase and sentence level, we are dealing with both classes. Thus open word classes, such as nouns since we are mainly dealing with common nouns referring to things or animals (as possessed things), and also with proper nouns: Mike’s
house, Mike’s brother (as possessors); verbs since they refer to the fact of ‘possession’; and adjectives, since they refer to possessive relations at the phrase level (i.e. my timetable).
Moreover, it is very often possible to repla ce open classes by an equivalent expression of closed classes, as for instance, possessive pronouns and prepositions. For instance, regarding prepositions, we may refer to the preposition ‘of’ which expresses possession in of-phrases as well as to the rest of prepositions which take part in idiomatic expressions (i.e. for God’s sake, in two years’ time). Finally, it is worth noting that apart from grammatical categories, we may find other specific clause structures, such as expressions used in poetry (i.e. For goodness’ sake) and idiomatic expressions which may indicate time reference (i.e. ‘yesterday’s meeting, a week’s holiday) or everyday expressions (i.e. For heaven’s sake).
10/ 28 4. THE EXPRESSION OF POSSESSION.
Once we have established a theoretical framework for the notion of possession within a linguistic, notional and lexical level, the expression of ‘ownership’ comes into force in this section as a descriptive approach to the notion of possession regarding morphological, phonological, syntactic and, mainly, semantic fields.
In the following sections, then, we shall examine the main issues that will provide the base for the whole unit. Thus, (1) possession in terms of morphology, which shall review the genitive case formation regarding different grammatic al categories; (2) possession in terms of phonology, which shall examine pronunciation of possessive cases; (3) possession in terms of syntax, which shall place the genitive case formation at sentence level, focusing on the two main genitive structures: saxon genitive and of-phrase structure; and finally (4) possession in terms of semantics, which shall clarify different types of possessive relationships.
4.1. Morphology and possession.
As stated before, possession is expressed by both open or closed classes, thus by means of nouns
(common and proper), verbs, adjectives, pronouns, prepositions and also by means of specific clause structures and idiomatic expressions. Hence, in this section we shall briefly establish a link
between the morphology of these grammatical categories and the expression of possession so as to provide a more relevant framework for our study.
4.1.1. Nouns.
In this section we shall examine first, how to express possession by means of nouns and, second, the form of the possessive inflection in the genitive form when dealing with nouns. Yet, we must bear in mind that the plural formation rules have a close relationship with the structure of the ‘saxon genitive’ since an ‘s’ must be added to the end of the noun.
First of all, nouns can make a direct reference to possession when they are semantically explicit forms, for instance, ‘owner, master, keeper, slave, ruler, property, belongings, etc’ which convey the meaning of ‘ownership’ to some extent. Moreover, we can add the well-known nouns , all over mentioned in this study, such as ‘possessor, possessed, possession’.
Secondly, when dealing with the formation of the possessive case, we must distinguish two cases: first, (1) when we find only one ‘possessor’ or second, (2) when we find several ‘possessors’. (1) First, when we are dealing with only one ‘possessor’, the structure is as follows: ‘possessor’ + ‘s + the person or thing ‘possessed’ (i.e. Mary’s sister). Note that when the possessive case is used, the
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article before the person or thing ‘possessed’ disappears (i.e. the daughter of the President=the
President’s daughter; the poetry of Lord Byron=Lord Byron’s poetry). Moreover, there are some
general considerations to follow when we add the possessive ‘s’ (Thomson & Martinet, 1986). For instance:
(a) the ‘s is used with singular nouns and plural nouns not ending in –s (i.e. a man’s job, men’s
work; a girl’s voice, women’s clothes).
(b) However, we just use a simple apostrophe (‘) with plural nouns, usually common ones, already ending in –s (i.e. the eagles’ nest, the students’ exam) as well as with classical names (i.e. Hercules’ labours, Sophocles’ plays) However, sometimes, following Sánchez Benedito (1975), other names ending in –s can take ‘s or the apostrophe alone (i.e.
Charles’s shirt or Charles’ shirt; Yeats’s poems or Yeats’ poems).
(2) Second, when dealing with several ‘possessors’ or compounds, the structure is as follows: ‘possessors’ (the plural form ending must be –s) + the apostrophe + the person or thing ‘possessed’ (i.e. My sisters’ house; my friends’ party). However, if the noun is an irregular plural, not ending in –s, we apply the structure for only one possessor (i.e. the children’s toys; the sheep’s dog ). Moreover, there are some general considerations to follow:
(a) when names consist of several words, only the last word takes the ‘s (i.e. my
mother-in-law’s will; the Prince of Wales’s helicopter).
(b) Similarly, when more than two possessors are joined by the conjunction ‘and’, only the last word takes the possessive ‘s (i.e. Peter and Susanne’s house). If not, compare: Peter and
Susanne’s house (the house belong to both of them) vs. Peter’s and Susanne’s house (each
one has a house).
(c) Finally, note that the possessive ‘s can also be used after initials (i.e. the PM’s secretary;
the VIP’s escort).
4.1.2. Verbs.
Verbs can also indicate possession in a more direct way since they do not need any other grammatical category to express ‘ownership’, especially in imperative forms (i.e. Hold it!). Within this grammatical category we can distinguish, first, between those verbs which are strictly possessive, semantically speaking, among which we may differenciate between transitive and intransitive verbs; and second, those verbs which are not strictly possessive but their meaning relates somehow to the notion of ‘possession’.
First, among those verbs whose meaning is strictly possessive we find: have or have got, own,
possess, keep, obtain and belong (to). For instance, ‘I have a new mobile phone’, ‘She’s got many friends’, ‘He owns an incredible castle on the mountain’, ‘They possess enterprises all over the world’, ‘Could you keep my personal staff for some days?’, ‘He obtained the money he claimed
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for’, ‘This watch belongs to Cristine’. Note that all of them are transitive verbs (i.e. have (got), own, possess, keep, obtain) except for ‘belong to’.
Second, among those verbs whose meaning is not strictly possessive but conveys the meaning of ‘possession’ somehow, we shall mention: ‘hold’, ‘grip’, ‘seize’, ‘monopolize’, ‘boast’, ‘enjoy’, and so on. For instance, ‘Mark Starvik holds several diamond companies in Switzerland’, ‘The
frightened child gripped his mother’s hand’, ‘The government seized Bob’s goods for payment of debt’, ‘Arabia monopolizes petrol companies around the world’, ‘He boa sts that he is the best tennis player in the town’, ‘My father-in-law enjoys a good income (He has a benefit)’.
4.1.3. Adjectives.
The notion of possession is also expressed by means of adjectives. This open- class grammatical category functions within the framework of noun-phrases, but we must distinguish between two types of adjectives in terms of their grammatical function. For instance, first, adjectives which qualify nouns, which is not our present concern; and second, adjectives which function as determiners of nouns, and on which we shall focus in this section.
Possessive adjectives are to be found within a further distinction of adjectives as determiners, since they are divided into: possessive, demonstrative, numerals, interrogative and indefinite adjectives. As a general rule, possessive adjectives are: my, your, his, her, its, our, your, their, and they agree with the ‘possessor’ but not with the person or thing ‘possessed’ (i.e. her mother=Ana’s mother but
NOT Tim’s mother).
Hence, we find in English three forms for the third person singular: his (masculine reference), her (feminine reference) and its (animal or thing reference) whereas the rest of possessive adjectives are invariable for masculine/feminine or singular/plural (i.e. our house=Ana’s house, Charles’ house,
Mary and Mark’s house). Note that the form ‘your’ is used both for the second person singular and
the second person plural.
The use of possessive adjectives in English differ to the use of possessive adjectives in Spanish in that, first, they are invariable for singular and plural whereas in Spanish they are not (i.e. My
house(s) vs. mi casa, mis casas); second, in English they distinguish three different forms for the
third person singular, thus masculine, feminine and things/animals whereas in Spanish we do not have that distinction (i.e. Her/his/its birthday vs. su cumpleaños); third, at the usage level, in English possessive adjectives are used where Spanish use the article ‘the’ (i.e. She washed her
13/ 28 4.1.4. Pronouns.
Pronouns are to be found, as opposed to the above grammatical categories, under the classification of closed-class grammatical category together with prepositions (next section). However, possessive pronouns share many similarities and some differences with possessive adjectives, so this is the reason why their description will be quite similar.
First of all, the main difference between both categories is to be found in the grammatical function they perform at the sentence level. Thus, whereas possessive adjectives function as determiners of nouns, possessive pronouns function as substitutes of nouns, that is, they substitute a whole noun-phrase and keeps the same meaning with similar form (i.e. This is my book vs. This book is mine). Possessive pronouns, as such, are to be found in the general classification of pronouns: possessive, demonstrative, personal, reflexive, interrogative and relative pronouns. As a general rule, possessive pronouns are: mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, yours, theirs and we can observe the outstanding similarity with possessive adjectives, since some of them add a final –s to the base form. As for possessive adjectives, they agree with the ‘possessor’ but not with the person or thing ‘possessed’, that is, they agree in number and person with the possessor but not with the thing possessed (i.e.
This is Jane’s hat=This hat is hers).
Hence, we find in English three forms for the third person singular: his (masculine reference), hers (feminine reference) and its (animal or thing reference) whereas the rest of possessive pronouns are invariable for masculine/feminine or singular/plural (i.e. our house=ours). Note that the form ‘yours’ is also used both for the second person singular and the second person plural.
Similarly to possessive adjectives, the use of possessive pronouns in English differ to the use of possessive pronouns in Spanish in that, first, some of them are invariable for singular and plural, masculine or feminine whereas in Spanish they are not (i.e. It is mine=es mío/mía; This house is
yours=esta casa es tuya o vuestra); second, in English they distinguish three different forms for the
third person singular, thus masculine, feminine and things/animals whereas in Spanish we do not have that distinction (i.e. This is hers/his/its vs. Esto es de ella/él/ello ).
Finally, it is relevant to mention some specific cases which are worth remembering. For instance, (1) possessive pronouns do not admit the definite article ‘the’ as in Spanish (i.e. el mío=mine); (2) there are some special structures, such as the sequence ‘of + possessive pronoun’ (i.e. This is a good friend of mine) vs. the sequence ‘of + possessive adjective + noun’ (i.e. This is one of my friends); (3) note that the form ‘one’s’ is the possessive adjective of the pronoun ‘one’ (i.e. It’s disappointing
to have one’s word doubted=One may be disappointed when someone doubts about you); (4)
sometimes we use ‘own’ with the possessive adjective, and not with the pronoun, to emphasize a fact (i.e. Have you a car of your own?). However, (5) when the emphatic ‘very own’ follows a possessive, there is no difference between the adjective and the pronoun (i.e. That is my very own
14/ 28 4.1.5. Prepositions.
Again, prepositions are to be found under the classification of closed-class grammatical category together with possessive pronous. Prepositions may express ‘possession’ by direct means, such as the preposition ‘of’ or when related to other grammatical categories which express ‘ownership’, such as verbs (i.e. belong to). Moreover, idiomatic expressions and specific structures also need of prepositions to indicate possession (i.e. on my own; a friend of mine).
Actually, in subsequent sections, we shall examine in depth the role of the preposition ‘of’ within the of-phrase structure, as opposed to the genitive case (or saxon genitive), where the choice of paraphrasing the expression of possession or not with the preposition ‘of’ denotes the semantic reference to people (saxon genitive) or things/animals (of-phrase structure).
4.2. Phonology and possession.
As stated before, the notion of possession is namely conveyed in English by means of nouns (both common and proper names) and therefore, subjected to spelling rules similar to those of plural formation since English nouns have only two cases, the unmarked common case (Jane/boy) with singular and plural forms, and the marked genitive (Jane’s/boy’s). This genitive form is called the ‘possessive’ by reason of one of the main functions of the case indicating ‘belonging to’.
The –s genitive of regular nouns is realized in speech only in the singular since it takes one of the following forms: /iz/, /z/, /s/ according to the rules for plural formation in nouns. However, in writing, the inflection of regular nouns is realized in the singular by ‘s and in the plural by putting an apostrophe after the plural –s-. As a result, the spoken form ‘spy’ /spai/ may be pronounced in different ways: ‘The spies /spaiz/ were arrested’ (plural) vs. ‘The spy’s /spaiz/ companion was
arrested’ (genitive) vs. ‘The spies’ /spaiz or spaiziz/ companion were arrested (plural; genitive).
Actually, this genitive inflection is phonologically identical with the regular plural inflection with a consequent neutralization of the case distinction in the plural. In being phonologically identical with the plural, the regular genitive plural is sometimes called the ‘zero genitive’. Such a zero genitive is common with:
(a) names that end in /z/, especially if they are foreign names: Moses /-ziz/ laws, Cervantes’
works’, and especially Greek names of more than one syllable: ‘Socrates’ /-ti:z/ doctrines, Euripides’ /-diz/ plays.
(b) older English names:, Guy Fawkes’ Day.
(c) with fixed expressions on the form ‘for ... sake’ as in for goodness’ sake /s/, for conscience’
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(d) with many other names ending in /z/ where, in speech, zero is a variant of the regular /iz/ genitive. There is a vacillation both in the pronunciation and spelling of these names, but most commonly the pronunciation is the /iz/ form and the spelling an apostrophe only. Note the double pronunciation in: ‘Dickens’ novels’ which may be pronounced /dikinz/ or
/dikinziz/ and in ‘Mr Burns /z/ or Mr Burns’s /ziz/.
To sum up, as well as with pronunciation rules for plural formation in nouns, the pronunciation of the possessive ‘s depends on the sound which precedes it. For instance:
(1) if the genitive ‘s is preceded by voiceless sounds as in pop’s, Pat’s, Quirk’s, wife’s,
mouth’s, it is pronounced /s/;
(2) if the genitive ‘s is preceded by voiced sounds as in Bob’s, dad’s, bath’s, bag’s
love’s, mobile’s, Pam’s, pin’s string’s, roar’s, it is pronounced /z/.
(3) Finally, if the genitive ‘s is preceded by sibilant sounds as in chess’, horse’s,
George’s, smash’, stretch’s, television’s, it is pronounced /iz/.
4.3. Syntax and possession.
In English, the expression of possession is mainly drawn by two syntactic devices: first, by means of the genitive case and second, by means of the of-phrase structure. In this section, we shall review these two devices as well as other syntactic structures which would include specific clause structures and idiomatic expressions. We must remember at this point that all these particular structures will broadly review the different grammatical status of the genitive (both –s genitive and
of-phrase) at a sentence level.
Thus, they shall mainly function as (a) determiners within noun phrases (i.e. my friend’s new
computer) or when the genitive itself is a phrase noun incorporating its own determiner ((i.e. my good-looking friend’s new computer); (b) modifiers, where they have a classifying role (i.e. an old’s shepherd’s hut); (c) independent constructions, such as omission of –s genitive (i.e. His car is like his father’s) or the of-construction (i.e. The flats of New York are more difficult to buy than those of Spain ); and finally, postposition genitives with a partitive role (i.e. One of Peter’s houses will be sold this week).
4.3.1. Main syntactic structures.
So, regarding the main syntactic structures, we shall state that, first, generally, genitives function exactly like central definite determiners within noun phrases (compare: ‘a new car, the new car, this
new car, Mike’s new car’) whereas of-phrases function as postmodifiers. However, in many
instances there is such an overlap between function and semantic identity, that is, between a noun in the genitive case and the same noun as head of a prepositional phrase with ‘of’, that we make use of prepositional phrases.
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We refer to the –s genitive for the inflection and to the of-genitive for the prepositional form (compare: ‘What is the ship’s name?’ vs. ‘What is the name of the ship?’). Secondly, another factor which may influence on their optional use is the information focus, where the –s enables us to give end-focus to one noun and the of-genitive to another. Compare: ‘the girls’ success’ vs. ‘the success
of the girls’.
4.3.1.1. The –s genitive.
The –s genitive is not used with all nouns equally but tends to be namely associated with those of animate gender, especially with those having personal and nonpersonal reference and, to a lesser degree, with inanimate nouns, such as things, geographical names and temporal nouns. But before examining each type, let us remember the complex pattern of gender classes, with sometimes some overlapping, within the category of animate and inanimate nouns.
(1) Animate nouns include both personal and nonpersonal nouns. (a) First, nouns with personal reference are commonly in male (i.e. boy) or female (i.e. girl) pairs, but many personal nouns can be regarded as having dual gender, since they can be male or female in reference as required (i.e. friend, guest, parent, lover, person ). Note that most of these are nouns of agency (i.e. doctor, teacher, singer, student, writer), and that ‘countries’ and ‘ships’, although inanimate, are often treated as female: ‘Italy is decreasing her exports’, ‘The Tytanic sank when she struck an iceberg’. Other types deal with nouns where the sex of the people concerned is irrelevant, for instance, first, common gender which applies to neuter nouns such as baby, infant,
child, adult, which though referring to male and female gender are addressed to
using the neuter pronoun ‘it’ (i.e. The child lost its toys); and second, collective nouns where, like the common gender nouns, the sex of the people is expressed by the use of ‘it’ and ‘which’ (i.e. family, army, party, company, firm, police,
government, crew, team, jury, committee, etc).
Moreover, we may use it with the indefinite pronouns which represent people (i.e.
someone, somebody, nobody, anybody, etc ) and even with names of institutions,
countries, states, cities or activities related to people, as in ‘Japan’s economic
boom’, ‘the country’s population’, ‘California’s immigrants’, ‘the city’s museums’,
and so on.
(b) Second, nouns with nonpersonal reference mainly include animals and, to a lesser degree, things (since these are classified as inanimate). Among animals, there is a further classification: familiar and less familiar animals. The former type include those animals in which human society takes a special interest, and which significantly has to do with familiar experience (farming, domestic pets). For instance, birds, dogs, cats, bulls, cows, etc.
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As for nouns with personal reference, many of the nonpersonal nouns are commonly in male (i.e. bull, horse) or female (i.e. cow, mare ) pairs. However, many these nonpersonal nouns can be also regarded as having dual gender although they have already their counterpart (i.e. dog vs. bitch, ram vs. ewe, etc). They can be male or female in reference as required (i.e. horse, dog, cat, sheep, bird ), using ‘he’ or ‘she’ to denote gender (i.e. This dog is two years old, isn’t she beautiful?). On the other hand, less familiar animals include most of creatures in the animate world, and which do not take part in familiar experience as farming or pets. For instance, squirrels, bears, starlings, snakes, spiders and moths may be also referred to as neuter nouns, where the sex of the animal is irrelevant and, therefore, be addressed to as he or she (i.e. Have you seen any spider in this room?- Yes, it’s
hanging from the lamp ). Note that they are often treated as inanimate nouns.
(2) Inanimate nouns, then, are those which do not refer to people or animals, that is, things and objects (i.e. window, door, car, spoon, candle, etc). It is worth noting however, that sometimes inanimate objects such as ships or boats are treated with personal reference when dealing with human experiences or habits (i.e. the ship’s
bell, the yacht’s mast) as well as with countries (i.e. Greece is a beutiful place to visit. Her tourism rate is increasing).
Therefore, we shall use the possessive genitive case to refer to the following eight cases. First, we use the genitive case in any of the following four animate noun classes:
(1) personal names (i.e. Salamanca’s pupils, Beethoven’s house); (2) personal nouns (i.e. the boy’s new computer, my little sister’s doll); (3) collective nouns (i.e. the police’s meeting, the nation’s social security);
(4) and higher animals when not specifying gender (i.e. the horse’s tail, the lion’s prey). Moreover, the inflected genitive is also used with certain kinds of inanimate nouns, such as
(5) geographical and institutional names (i.e. Asia’s future, Spain’s democratic party, the
museum’s workers, London’s monuments);
(6) temporal nouns (i.e. a moment’s thought, the circus season’s first big event, a week’s
holidays, today’s lunch);
(7) measurement expressions of time (i.e. in two years’ time, ten minutes’ break, two hours’
dela y) and distance (i.e. at a stone’s throw, at arm’s length );
(8) and nouns of special interest to human activity (i.e. the brain’s total weight, the mind’s
18/ 28 4.3.1.2. The of- genitive.
The of- genitive is namely used with nouns of inanimate gender, especially with those having object reference (i.e. the last page of the book, the interior of the building) and, to a lesser degree, with animate nouns, especially those with nonpersonal reference when emphasis is required, since they often overlap (i.e. the tail of the dog). Note that sometimes, an –s genitive would be also acceptable, but in many instances this is not so, as in ‘the hub of the wheel or the window of the houses’. However, the corresponding personal pronouns would normally have the inflected genitive: ‘its
hub, their windows’.
Therefore, we shall use the of-phrase construction in the following five cases:
(1) with inanimate possessors. However, since it oftens overlap with the –s genitive, it is possible to replace the sequence noun + of + noun (i.e. the walls of the room, the roof of the
shop, they keys of the car) by the sequence noun + noun (i.e. the room walls, the shop roof, the car keys). It is worth noting that in this combination, the first noun becomes a sort of
adjective and is not made plural (i.e. the roofs of the shops = the shop roofs). Unfortunately, according to Thomson & Martinet (1986), the sequence noun + of + noun combinations cannot always be replaced in this way and the student is advised to use ‘of’ when in doubt. (2) when the possessor noun is followed by a phrase or clause (i.e. The children ran away,
obeying the directions of a man with a whistle; I took the advice of a couple I met in the street);
(3) in certain expressions, such as those of measure, partition and apposition. First, (a) regarding measure expressions, the of-genitive is the usual device (i.e. the height of the
tower, the length of the road, three kilos of tomatoes, five yards of cloth ) except for the
measure of time (i.e. two days’ journey) and distance (i.e. at arm’s length).
Measure expressions are directly related to (b) partitive expressions, since both count and noncount nouns can enter constructions denoting part of a whole. Such partitive constructions may relate to both (i) quantity and (ii) quality, and in either case the partition may be singular (i.e. a piece of) or plural (i.e. two pieces of) followed by an of-phrase (i.e.
two pieces of cake). Note that partition may be expressed by treating the noun itself as
though it expressed a quantity or quality (i.e. two coffees=two cups of coffee).
Regarding (i) quantity, partition is expressed by, first, general noncount means (i.e. an item
of clothing, a bit of ), where some partitives occur with specific nouns (i.e. a blade of grass, some specks of dust, two loaves of bread, five slices of cake); second, by plural count nouns
where partitives relate to specific sets of nouns (i.e. a series of meetings, a flock of sheep, a
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play, a piece of clothing). It is worth noting that quantity partitives may also express precise
measure by means of fractional partition (i.e. He drank a quarter/half of beer).
Regarding (ii) quality, partition is namely expressed with the items ‘kind’ and ‘sort’ and even with ‘type’, ‘variety’ and, especially with such materials as coffee, drinks and tobacco, ‘blend’. For instance, with count nouns in singular (i.e. a new kind/type/sort of computer) and plural (i.e. some kinds/types/sorts of computer(s)), and also with noncount nouns, in singular (i.e. a delicious kind of meat, a fashionable sort of stamp) and in plural (i.e. some
delicious kinds of meat, several fashionable sorts of stamps).
Moreover, according to Greenbaum & Quirk (1990), since there is no necessary connection between countability and referential meaning, many English nouns can simulate the plural only by partitive constructions where their translation equivalents in some other languages are count nouns with singular and plural forms. For instance, the English words ‘news’ and ‘information’ (i.e. some information, some news) which indicate plural by the expression ‘pieces of’ (i.e. some pieces of information/news)
Finally, regarding (c) apposition expressions, they are intended to express a definite genitive with a determiner role in the sentence by means of a partitive of-construction. For instance, compare the sentences ‘York is a city’ vs. ‘the city of York’, ‘Anne’s sister is
coming tonight’ vs. ‘One of Anne’s sisters is coming tonight’ vs. ‘A sister of Anne’s is coming tonight’. It is worth noting that the latter example is called the ‘post-genitive’ (or
‘double-genitive’).
(4) Moreover, it is usual to find the of-construction in newspaper headlines, but often, perhaps for reasons of space economy, it is substituted by the inflected form of –s genitive. For instance, the headline ‘Camila Parker: Prince Charles’ new love’ might begin like: ‘Camila Parker: the new love of Prince Charles’.
(5) Finally, we find a special of-construction use when the noun following the genitive is ellipted if the reference is contextually clear, and is substituted by the demonstrative adjectives ‘that’ or ‘those’. For instance, ‘The lifestyle of Switzerla nd is more fashionable
than that of Spain’.
4.3.2. Other syntactic structures.
Having examined the two main syntactic structures to express possession in English, we must examine as well other syntactic structures which, although not so outstanding like the preceding ones, are equally relevant when expressing ‘ownership’ because of their own particular way of construction. For instance, the ellipsis of the genitive case, which is commonly known as the
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and finally, everyday idiomatic expressions, among which we highlight expressions related to money and measurements.
4.3.2.1. The genitive with ellipsis.
First, the genitive with ellipsis, called later on ‘the independent genitive’ by Greenbaum & Quirk (1990) deals with cases in which the noun that is modified by the –s genitive, may be omitted if the context makes its identity clear. We may distinguish two cases: first, the ellipsis of the noun when its reference is contextually clear and, second, when the unexpressed item refers to homes or businesses, usually known as ‘local genitive’.
First of all, regarding those cases in which it is common to ellipt the noun following the genitive, we find examples with the possessive genitive, for instance, ‘He has a car like John’s (than John’s car) or Cristine’s is the only face I know here (Cristine’s face); and also, by contrast, with the of-construction in similar contexts, where a pronoun is normally necessary. For instance, the pronouns ‘that’ or ‘those’ usually replace the corresponding items in the following examples: ‘The population
of New York is greater than that of Chicago’ and ‘The cars of Italy are more expensive than those of Greece’.
Secondly, ellipsis is especially noteworthy in the ‘local genitive’, that is, expressions relating to homes, businesses and establishments. For instance, ‘You can find me at Tom’s tonight’ (where Tom lives); ‘When we arrived at Spike’s, a new jazz group was playing’ (a well-known pub); ‘Anne
went to the dentist’s this afternoon’ (the dentist’s professional establishment). Note that when
referring to ‘local genitives’, one could not specify uniquely the unexpressed item because it would sound artificial in a fuller phrase (i.e. My baker’s shop stays open late on Mondays).
Moreover, the same applies to proper names where these refer to commercial firms. This usage is normal in relation to small ‘one-man’ businesses (i.e. I buy fresh fruit at Smith’s everyday). However, when we deal with the names of major firms, what begins as a local genitive develops into a plural, often so spelled and observing plural concord (i.e. Harrod’s is a famous department
store=Harrods is having a lot of sales). Furthermore, conflict between plurality and the idea of a
business as a collective unity results in variation in concord (i.e. Harrods is/are quite good on
sales).
4.3.2.2. The double genitive.
The double genitive, also known as the post-genitive (Greenbaum & Quirk, 1990), refers to an of-phrase which can be combined with an –s genitive construction (i.e. One of my best friend’s sisters). Since the –s genitive has a determiner role, this must be definite and personal (i.e. An opera of
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It is worth mentioning that there are two main conditions which also affect the noun preceding the
of-phrase. Thus, first, it cannot be a proper noun (i.e. NOT: Mrs White’s Mary or Mary of Mrs Browns); and second, this noun must have indefinite reference, that is, it must be seen as one of an
unspecified number of items attributed to the postmodifier (i.e. A friend of the doctor’s has arrived
BUT NOT: the daughter of the doctor’s has arrived).
The double genitive thus involves a partitive as one of its main components, as in ‘one of the doctor’s friends), which implies that he has more than one. Yet we are able, in apparent defiance of this statement, to use demonstratives as follows (i.e. that friend of mine; this song of U2 ).
4.3.2.3. The group genitive.
According to Quirk & Greenbaum (1973), the group genitive refers to those cases in which, in some postmodified noun phrases it is possible to use an –s genitive by affixing the inflection to the final part of the postmodification rather than to the head of the noun itself. Thus, ‘the teacher’s book’ vs.
‘the teacher of History’s book’. Hence, the noun phrase is constituted by premodifier (the teacher of
History) + ‘s + the head (book).
This group genitive is regularly used with such postmodifications as in ‘someone else’s car, the
lawyer apparent’s life’ as well as prepositional phrases (i.e. after a two days’ journey). Other
examples involve coordinations, as in ‘an hour and a half’s discussion, a week or so’s sunshine’. Note that the group genitive is not normally acceptable following a clause due to syntactic reasons, though in colloquial use one sometimes hears examples like ‘A man I know’s son has just won the
lotto’, ‘that old man what-do-you-call-him’s house has been sold’. Finally, remember that in normal
use, and writing in particular, -s genitives are replaced by of-genitives (i.e. The son of a man I know
has just won the lotto).
4.3.2.4. Idiomatic expressions.
Finally, idiomatic expressions mainly involve those referring to money, time and measurements. Thus, we find expressions of money + worth (i.e. three pounds’ worth of ice-cream, five euros’
worth of stamps); time (i.e. a week’s holiday, in two years’ time, today’s paper, ten minutes’ break,
tomorrow’s weather, two hours’ delay); and specific expressions of measurement, such spatial reference, distance, weight, etc. For instance, ‘a month’s rest, ten minutes’ walk, two day’s journey,
at a stone’s throw’, the journey’s end, the water’s edge, and so on.
Moreover, we also find some expressions related to everyday life and poetry by means of nouns, verbs and specific constructions, as we mentioned at the beginning of the study. For instance, ‘I
know the owner of this old house’, ‘the children have made the house of their own today’, ‘She has nothing she can call her own’, ‘This room is for my brother’s own use’, ‘they numbered a collection
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of diamonds among his possessions’, ‘for heaven’s sake’ and ‘for goodness’ sake’; and possessive of-phrase constructions, such as ‘a friend of mine’.
4.4. Semantics and possession.
Actually, there are usually strong arguments for preferring one or other construction in a given case (noun phrase with ‘s genitive vs. prepositional phrase with of-phrase), and numerous environments in which only one construction is grammatically appropiate. In fact, a relevant fac tor influencing the choice of genitive emerges from the syntactic field with the information focus, where the –s genitive enables us to give end-focus to one noun and the of-genitive to another.
Thus, compare the following ‘The explosion damaged the car’s door’ vs. ‘Having looked at the car,
he considered the most damaged part was the door of the car’. This principle is congruent again
with the preference for the of-genitive with partitives and appositives where an –s genitive would result in undesirable or absurd final prominence: the problem’s part.
However, the degree of similarity and overlap has led grammarians to regard the two constructions in semantic terms as variant forms of the genitive expressing different nuances. Actually, in many instances there is such an overlap between syntactic function and semantic identity, that is, between a noun in the genitive case and the same noun as head of a prepositional phrase with ‘of’, that we need of semantic devices to make the appropriate choice.
The distinction between them will depend much on gender and on contextual viewpoint, far from being syntactically explained. In general, the choice can be more securely related to the gender classes represented by the noun which is to be genitive, thus the –s genitive is favoured by the expression of literal possession within the classes that are highest on the gender scale: animate nouns, in particular people and animals with personal gender characteristics (i.e. ‘Peter’s age’, ‘My
grandfather’s cottage’, but NOT ‘the hat of John’). However, the partitive genitive with ‘of’ is
more suitable when attribution and partition are regarded.
Note that the relevance of gender is shown also in the fact that the indefinite pronouns with personal reference (i.e. someone’s problem, everybody’s enemy, etc) admit the –s genitive while those with non-personal reference do not (i.e. something’s problem, everything’s enemy). The semantic classification is part arbitrary. For instance, we could claim that cow’s milk is not a genitive of origin but a descriptive genitive (the kind of milk obtained from a cow) or even a subjective genitive (the cow provided the milk ). For this reason, meanings and sentential analogues can provide only inconclusive help in choosing between –s and of-genitive use.
All in all, we shall offer a semantic classification of genitive meanings following similar criteria from Quirk & Greenbaum (1973), Sánchez Benedito (1975) and Greenbaum & Quirk (1990), which, in most cases, can be paraphrased (where possible) and are classified as follows: possessive
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genitive, subjective genitive, objective genitive, genitive of origin, descriptive genitive, genitive of measure and partitive genitive, and finally, appositive genitive.
4.4.1. Possessive genitive.
The possessive genitive expresses the genitive meaning in itself and, therefore, it is named as such. One of its main features is that it is normally placed in often paraphrased with the verbs ‘have’, ‘own’, and so on. For instance, Jane’s summer house (Jane owns a summer house), my sister’s
mobile (my sister has a mobile); also, we find of-phrase structures, as in the chimney of my house
(my house has a chimney).
4.4.2. Appositive genitive.
The appositive genitive (Quirk & Greenbaum, 1973) which was later on called genitive of attribution (Greenbaum & Quirk, 1990) is to be enclosed within the syntactic definition of apposition structures, in other words, postmodification involving explanatory paraphrase by means of prepositional phrases, primary verbs (be, have, do), that-clauses and nonfinite clauses (-ing and
infinitive clauses).
Since this type of genitive deals with the prepositional use, we shall deal with certain constructions such as of-phrases (the outstanding courage of the fireman) which would involve the notions of ‘characterized’ and ‘characterization’, that is, the noun ‘fireman’ would be the ‘characterized’ item with personal reference, and ‘the outstanding courage’, the ‘characterization’ with nonpersonal reference regarding in the paraphrased sentence ‘the fireman was very courageous’.
The appositive genitive namely finds its expression through the of-genitive, which in fact resembles a sentence with primary verbs (be, have). It is worth remembering that it is with ‘have’ sentences that we find the most relevant resemblance of the commonest prepositional postmodification with
of-phrases (i.e. a woman of courage=the woman has courage). For instance, observe the
paraphrasing in ‘the courage of the fireman’: ‘the fireman is corageous’, ‘the fireman has courage’. Moreover, we may find nonappositive or appositive prepositional phrases which, in turn, may thus be restrictive and nonrestrictive. So, we may find ambiguous phrases like ‘the issue of student
grants’, which is appositive and restrictive (with no commas); and also ‘the issue, of student grants,...’ which is appositive and nonrestrictive (with commas). However, the structure ‘the
issue(,) of student grants(,)’ presents a nonappositive meaning in nonrestrictive function which is similar to the ‘objective of’, meaning ‘someone issued student grants’. Yet, this function would be rare and unnatural.
24/ 28 4.4.3. Subjective genitive.
The subjective genitive has a specific syntactic structure, where the noun of the genitive is actually the subject and is often paraphrased in predicative position with intransitive verbs. For instance, the
boy’s application form (the boy applied), the economy’s unexpected increase (the economy
increased unexpectedly), the leaves’ fall (the leaves fell down), the girl’s screams (the girl screamed); and also, note the use in of-phrase constructions, as in the rise of the sun (the sun rose).
4.4.4. Objective genitive.
The objective genitive also has a particular syntactic structure, where the noun of the genitive is actually the object of the sentence and, unlike the subjective genitive, is often paraphrased in predicative position with transitive verbs. For instance, the friends’s support (someone supports the friends), the criminal’s release from prison (someone released the criminal from prison); and also, note the use in of-phrases, as in a report of the news (someone reported the news).
4.4.5. Descriptive genitive.
The descriptive genitive involves, as its name indicates, a description of the noun following the genitive, and therefore, it is often paraphrased with modifiers, that is, appositive clauses or prepositions. For instance, attributive clauses are used on paraphrasing in a lawyer’s job (the job is as a lawyer), a doctor’s degree (the degree is a doctorate), children’s sport clothes (sport clothes are especially designed for children), and also, prepositions are used in a women’s college (a college for women) and a winter’s day (a day in winter).
4.4.6. Partitive genitive.
The partitive genitive is usually expressed by the of-construction since it is far from denoting literal possession (expressed by the possessive genitive) and can be also paraphrased by transitive verbs. As its name indicates, this type of genitive denotes partition as ‘parts of a whole’, where the noun preceding the genitive indicates the whole part and the noun after it indicates the specific part of the division (i.e. the brain’s two hemispheres).
In those cases where both genitive and of-phrases are grammatically possible, the choice often turns on the syntactic field addressing the principle of end-focus or end-weight. Thus, observe the following examples, an absence of three years/a three years’ absence (the absence lasted three years), part of the inheritance (the inheritance is divisible into parts).
25/ 28 4.4.7. Genitive of measure.
The genitive of measure usually overlaps with the partitive genitive since they share similar characteristics. Thus, also expressed by the of-construction, the genitive of measure can be also paraphrased by transitive verbs. As its name indicates, this type of genitive indicates measure regarding time, height, weight, distance, value, etc, as in the height of the tower (the tower is of a certain height), the length of the river (the river is of a certain length). Note that it also denotes partition as ‘parts of a whole’ on specifying part of a division, as in a fraction of a second (a second is divided into parts), the parts of a day (a day is divided into parts), and so on.
Again, in those cases where both genitive and of-phrases are grammatically possible, the choice often turns on the syntactic field addressing the principle of end-focus or end-weight. Thus, observe the following examples, a delay of five hours vs. a five hours delay (the delay lasted five hours).
4.4.8. Genitive of origin.
The genitive of origin , as its names indicates, addresses directly to the origin or source of the noun preceding the genitive, as in your grandmother’s letter, Italy’s pizza,, England’s cheeses, the boys’
story, and so on. As we can observe, the description of the noun preceding the genitive (your grandmother’s letter/Italy’s pizza/etc) is often paraphrased with modifiers, in predicative clauses
(the letter has been sent by your grandmother/the pizza has its origins in Italy/etc) or with prepositions (the letter from your grandmother/the pizza from Italy /etc). Note that the same is applied to the of-constructions (i.e. the wines of France=France produced the wines).
5. EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS.
The main issue of this study, how to express possession in English, proves relevant to the learning of a foreign language since differences between the vocabulary of the learner's native language (L1) and that of the foreign language (L2) may lead to several problems, such as the incorrect use of possession expressions, especially because of the syntactic, morphological, phonological and semantic processes implied in these categories.
This study has looked at the expression of possession within lexical semantics, morphology, phonology and syntax in order to establish a relative similarity between the two languages that Spanish-speaking students would find it useful for learning English if these connections were brought to their attention, especially when different structures may overlap, for instance, of-phrase constructions and possessiv e genitive (i.e. the name of the dog/the dog’s name).
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According to Thomson & Martinet (1986), a European student (for our purposes a Spanish student) may find especially troublesome the use of these two structures, and in particular that of the saxon genitive structure since, when communicating in English, first, he has to know in which construction the saxon genitive is required or not and, second, which construction to use when a certain possessive relationship is presented (i.e. people, things, places, etc).
This choice becomes problematic for our Spanish students when they try to find in his own language a certain construction similar to the English one with the saxon genitive structure. For instance, the most common mistake for Spanish students, both at ESO and Bachillerato level, with a sentence like La casa de Sarah, is to express possession as in Spanish, by means of the preposition ‘of’ = ‘de’ (i.e. NOT: The Sarah’s house/The house of Sarah) and, often, it does not correspond literally to the translation the students make. However, since there is certain similarity with of-phrases, students find it easier with this type of construction.
In the Spanish curriculum (B.O.E. 2002), the expression of possession is envisaged from earlier stages of ESO in terms of grammar (possessive adjectives and pronouns, interrogative pronouns
related to possession: whose), phonology (pronunciation of saxon genitive ‘s), morphology (when adding apostrophe and ‘s), simple descriptions of possession relationships, written or oral, related
to family (i.e. my mother’s sister is my aunt), personal items (i.e. This is Antonio’s mobile/This is
Antonio’s) and everyday events (i.e. It is Charles’s birthday). At the higher stages of Bachillerato,
we move towards more complex descriptions of possession and a more accurate use of it, addressing not only to the two main structures (possessive genitive and of-phrase ) but also to other syntactic structures such as the group genitive (i.e. This is one of Martin’s sisters), ellipsis of genitive marker (i.e. Your skirt is like Maria’s), and idiomatic expressions (i.e. two hours’ delay, in
ten days’ time).
The expression of possession has been considered a relevant element of any language teaching curriculum because of its high-frequency in speech. We must not forget that the expression of possession, drawn by a wide range of grammatical categories (nouns, adjectives, verbs, prepositions, etc) is constantly present in our everyday lives and, therefore, in our students’ as well. For instance, note its presence in clothes trade marks (i.e. Levis’, Burberry’s, Pepe’s), shops (i.e.
Toys’r’us, Harrods’), fast food restaurants (i.e. McDonald’s, Paco’s pizza, etc ), and so on.
Hence, the importance of how to handle these expressions cannot be understated since students must distinguish what type of relationship is to be established in order to use the appropriate structure or grammar category. For instance, if we are dealing with ‘people’, the saxon genitive proves relevant (i.e. Markus’ car) and when using possessive adjectives or pronouns, they must take into account the differences in gender in the third person singular (masculine, feminine, neuter) as in ‘This is Markus’ car. It’s his car. His car is his’. However, learners cannot do it all on their own. Language learners, even 2nd year Bachillerato students, do not automatically recognize differences which seem obvious to teachers, and need to have these associations brought to their attention.
