A soldier's story

Question

Hi.When an indefinite article is used like these below, does it qualify the noun after a possessive?a soldier's story   (a story of soldier)a user's guide  (a guide for user)Thank you very much in advance.

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

When an indefinite article is used like these below, does it qualify the noun after a possessive?-- I don't understand your point, but:

a soldier's story = a story about a soldier or by a soldier.
a user's guide = a guide for a user ( a guide by a user is possible but not expected)

CalifJim · Answer

kook jWhen an indefinite article is used like these below, does it qualify the noun after a possessive?

It depends on which grammarian you ask. According to many grammarians, the article applies only to the possessive word itself, not to the noun after it. Thus,

the bird's nest is the nest of the bird.
a bird's nest is the nest of a bird.

That makes sense if you consider expressions like a man's blood, which is can hardly be a blood of a man, but must almost certainly be the blood of a man.

In agreement with this approach, Huddleston (Introduction to English Grammar) claims that a reviewer's responsibility means the responsibility of a reviewer, not a responsibility of a reviewer.
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In spite of these analyses I'm inclined to think that the article for the noun after the possessive is indeterminate. I personally can't see why a soldier's story can't be either the story of a soldier or a story of a soldier. So I would agree that the article you see written in the text applies to the possessive component and not to the following noun, but that the article that goes with that noun is not recoverable from the text at all - though the works more often than a (because of expressions like a man's blood).

This is a topic of some controversy in linguistic circles.

CJ

A soldier's story

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