"Of" to show posession for a person

Question

Is it right?He is the father of chief doctor of New York hospital.

Vorpar · Accepted Answer

He is the father of the chief doctor of a New York hospital.

Yes, "of" can be possessive in certain contexts.

Blueblooded65 · Answer

Thanks a lot.
I had heard that we cant use "of" for person and we should use "-'s".
But sometimes it is not really possible. It sophisticates the sentence
Ex/ He is a New York hospital's chief doctor's father.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

blueblooded65Thanks a lot.I had heard that we cant use "of" for person and we should use "-'s".But sometimes it is not really possible. It overly complicates the sentence Ex/ He is a New York hospital's chief doctor's father.

He is a New York hospital's chief doctor's father.

The sentence is correct, but it does take a lot more thinking to parse.
Where the of-phrase is not commonly used is in the simple cases:

The dog of my father - uncommon
My father's dog - common

But the pattern is often used for dramatic effect in titles and set phrases

In the name of the father
Sins of the father
The songs of my mother
The Companions of Doctor Who

The Fellowship of the Ring

"Of" to show posession for a person

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