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Anonymous Posted 14 years ago
Grammar
Triple possessive case?
Hi. Please help. Why is that we have to put the apostrophe for the last example phrasal case below when I think we do not normally put an apostrophe to make the ones like that the possessive in other sentence structure cases (as it seems)?
We normally write like these, I think:
The nose of the dog is excellent.
The toy of John Doe's is cute.
But in this phrase, I think it is correct to use/have both the genitive and the possessive form. I am sorry I couldn't provide a full sentence. It was hard to write one. Let us assume the dog's name is Piru.
the nose of Piru's having done its job perfectly.
We normally write like these, I think:
The nose of the dog is excellent.
The toy of John Doe's is cute.
But in this phrase, I think it is correct to use/have both the genitive and the possessive form. I am sorry I couldn't provide a full sentence. It was hard to write one. Let us assume the dog's name is Piru.
the nose of Piru's having done its job perfectly.
Top answer
The toy of John Doe's and the nose of Piru's are called the double genitive and are quite common. One reason that it is used is because we normally use the Anglo-Saxon genitive (-'s) and not the 'of'-genitive with people and anthropomorphized possessors. Another reason is that the 'of'-genitive alone can be confusing: does 'the toy of John Doe' refer to a toy that John owns or does it refer to a toy made in John's image?
- The toy of John Doe's and the nose of Piru's are called the double genitive and are quite common.
- One reason that it is used is because we normally use the Anglo-Saxon genitive (-'s) and not the 'of'-genitive with people and anthropomorphized possessors.
- Another reason is that the 'of'-genitive alone can be confusing: does 'the toy of John Doe' refer to a toy that John owns or does it refer to a toy made in John's image?
- The nose of the dog , on the other hand, does not call for the double genitive because the 'of'-genitive is our normal formation for non-human possessors (nor does the confusion mentioned above exist).
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2 Answers
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The toy of John Doe's and the nose of Piru's are called the double genitive and are quite common. One reason that it is used is because we normally use the Anglo-Saxon genitive (-'s) and not the 'of'-genitive with people and anthropomorphized possessors. Another reason is that the 'of'-genitive alone can be confusing: does 'the toy of John Doe' refer to a toy that John owns or does
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Thank you. As for the phrase example I have written in the starting post of this thread, I think we would make it the double possessive even though the case deals with a non-human being - a dog in this case. As a side note: I shouldn't have put the period at the end.
the nose of Piru's having done its job perfectly.
Which is correct?
Case of possessor bei
the nose of Piru's having done its job perfectly.
Which is correct?
Case of possessor bei
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