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Jooney Posted 14 years ago
Grammar
Nominalization
Hi,
The court’s membership has changed since 2003, most notably with the appointment of Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., who replaced Justice O’Connor in 2006. Justice Alito has voted with the court’s more conservative justices in decisions hostile to government use of racial classification.
I think the bold part is sort of like a nominalization of the following sentence:
The goverment use racial classification.
Other examples would be:
ex1)
A: I criticized her decision
B: my criticism of her decision
ex2)
A: The school banned alcohol.
B: the school's ban on alcohol.
Here the complement of the noun that corresponds to the the object of the verb has the form of a preposition phrase and the preposition is usually "of", but other preposition are also possible, as shown in B of example 2. And the subject of the sentence takes a possessive form.
My questions are as follows:
Q1) In the original example, why is the word "government" in its possessive form? Shouldn't there be an apostrophe?
Q2) Why is the definite article missing? Shouldn't "the" be inserted in front of "government"?
I'd appreciate your help.
The court’s membership has changed since 2003, most notably with the appointment of Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., who replaced Justice O’Connor in 2006. Justice Alito has voted with the court’s more conservative justices in decisions hostile to government use of racial classification.
I think the bold part is sort of like a nominalization of the following sentence:
The goverment use racial classification.
Other examples would be:
ex1)
A: I criticized her decision
B: my criticism of her decision
ex2)
A: The school banned alcohol.
B: the school's ban on alcohol.
Here the complement of the noun that corresponds to the the object of the verb has the form of a preposition phrase and the preposition is usually "of", but other preposition are also possible, as shown in B of example 2. And the subject of the sentence takes a possessive form.
My questions are as follows:
Q1) In the original example, why is the word "government" in its possessive form? Shouldn't there be an apostrophe?
Q2) Why is the definite article missing? Shouldn't "the" be inserted in front of "government"?
I'd appreciate your help.
Top answer
You're correct, the following are similar: The government uses racial classification. the government's use of racial classification I criticized her decision. my criticism of her decision The school banned alcohol.
- You're correct, the following are similar: The government uses racial classification.
- the government's use of racial classification I criticized her decision.
- my criticism of her decision The school banned alcohol.
- the school's ban on alcohol Q1) The original text is correct.
- This is very difficult to explain grammatically (this is another of those "that's just the way it's said in this context" examples).
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4 Answers
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You're correct, the following are similar:
The government uses racial classification.
the government's use of racial classification
I criticized her decision.
my criticism of her decision
The school banned alcohol.
the school's ban on alcohol
Q1) The original text is correct. This is very difficult to explain grammatically (this is another of those
The government uses racial classification.
the government's use of racial classification
I criticized her decision.
my criticism of her decision
The school banned alcohol.
the school's ban on alcohol
Q1) The original text is correct. This is very difficult to explain grammatically (this is another of those
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Thank you for your answer, Anonymous.
I'd like to get a more definitive answer if possible.
A: the government's use of racial classification
B: government use of racial classification
In what context would you use A over B or vice versa?
Thank you.
I'd like to get a more definitive answer if possible.
A: the government's use of racial classification
B: government use of racial classification
In what context would you use A over B or vice versa?
Thank you.
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I would say that you would never use the phrase "the government's use of racial classification," even though it is grammatical and seems similar to "government use of racial classification." The reason is difficult to explain, other than "that's just the way it is in English." The best explanation I can give is that this topic is an extremely sensitive issue in the United States, and thus everyb
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