Summary Details
| Query: |
Double Possessives
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| Author: | Tong Zhimin | |
| Submitter Email: | click here to access email | |
| Linguistic LingField(s): |
Morphology
Syntax |
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| Summary: |
Dear LINGUIST Readers, This is a summary of responses to my query about the double possessive posted a long time ago. I am extremely sorry it took me so long to get the summary available. First of all I wish to express once again my gratitude to all those who responded to my posting: Allan Wechsler awechsle@bbn.com Barbara Zurer Pearson bpearson@miami.edu Bernard Comrie comrie@rcf.usc.edu Bradley Harris bdharris@memphis.edu (Email no longer applicable) Chad D Nilep chad.nilep@asu.edu Charles Belair belair@acsu.buffalo.edu Colin Whiteley cwhiteley@tyco.geis.com Daniel Loehr loehrd@gusun.georgetown.edu Debra Ziegeler DZIEGELE@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au Douglas Dee Douglas.Dee@us.coopers.com E. Bashir ebashir@umich.edu Earl Herrick kfemh00@tamuk.edu George Huttar george_huttar@sil.org Jakob Dempsey jakob@inside.com.tw (Email no longer applicable) Karen Davis kmdavis@erols.com Lance Eccles leccles@laurel.ocs.mq.edu.au Laura Georgia Knudsen lwright@indiana.edu Laurence Urdang verbatimbks@aol.com Lisa Matthewson maggie@MIT.EDU Laurence Urdang LUVERBATIM@aol.com M. Lynne Roecklein lynne@cc.gifu-u.ac.jp Michael Horlick polyglot@usa.net Neil J. Squillante nsquillante@netsquire.com Patrick Juola patrick.juola@psy.ox.ac.uk Paul H. Listen plisten@earthlink.net Pipe Martin mpipe@BlackwellPublishers.co.uk Ronald Ross rross@cariari.ucr.ac.cr Stephen Rowland Stephen_Rowland@compuserve.com Steven Schaufele fcosw5@mbm1.scu.edu.tw Tara L. Narcross narcross.5@pop.service.ohio-state.edu Terry Nadasdi terry.nadasdi@ualberta.ca This is the first time I have ever posted a question on the Linguist Network, and was greatly encouraged by these warm-hearted people who answered my questions with a great deal of patience. The following is the summary. I think I have tried to properly represent every respondent's views, but I am also aware that my summary fails to cover all the points that were mentioned in the correspondence. So I also wish to make apologies to those whose responses I fail to do justice to. Briefly the topic is as follows. There are two sentences: (A) My father was a close friend of Albert Einstein. (B) My father was a close friend of Albert Einstein's. (A) is the version that I came across in my teaching. My questions are: 1. Are both of them acceptable? 2. If yes, is there any difference? Altogether 30 people (all being native speakers of English) responded to my query, and some of them later exchanged more mail with me and developed our discussion. My summary is based mainly on the first round of replies that I received, but follow-up responses are also considered. Of the 30 respondents, 29 say that both are acceptable. One of these 29 replies actually is a summary of responses to a similar question posted about two years ago, which contains a relevant paragraph implying that both are possible, but with difference. Just one respondent indicates that only (B) is OK. Among the 29, 10 see no difference between the two sentences. 3 prefer (A). 3 prefer (B). 13 differentiate the two constructions from various perspectives. One angle is style. 4 respondents say (B) is more colloquial,or less formal, or more used in speaking. Interestingly 1 person holds a totally contrary opinion: (B) is more formal. More interestingly, later a linguist argued strongly that definitely (B) is more formal and those who say (B) is more colloquial are undoubtedly wrong. 3 respondents distinguish the two sentences from a diachronic perspective. They think that (B) is more traditional and is used less and less. 5 people approach the difference in terms of focus. 4 of them believe that (A) emphasizes "father", implying "my father liked Einstein"; whereas (B) stresses "Einstein", implying "Einstein liked my father". Another respondent feels that (A) is completely neutral. Sentence (B) may imply that "you are talking about a set of Einstein's friends, and your father was one of them. Somehow, the focus is drawn more to Einstein, and hence the sentence is less neutral". Most replies to my posting did more than answer my questions. They went further and deeper to discuss the use of the possessive in English. Many respondents agree that this area is rather complicated (and interesting) and even native speakers sometimes get confused. Nevertheless, agreement has been reached on certain points. Two factors determine the use (or non-use) of the double possessive: (1) Whether the possessor is a noun or pronoun; (2) Whether the possessor and the possessed are animate or inanimate. First observe the following two groups of sentences. ("Yes" indicates possible; "no" impossible; "?" uncertain and probably impossible.) (1) No This is a book of me. Yes This is a book of mine. No My father was a close friend of him. Yes My father was a close friend of his. (2) Yes This is a wheel of my car. No This is a wheel of my car's. ? This is a book of my father. Yes This is a book of my father's. Yes My father was a close friend of Einstein. Yes My father was a close friend of Einstein's. Conclusions might be: 1. When the possessor is a pronoun, it is always genitive, regardless of animation. In other words, the double possessive is used. 2. When the possessor is a noun, the case becomes complex. If both the possessor and the possessed are inanimate, only the double possessive is possible. If the possessor is animate while the possessed is inanimate, it's very unlikely to not use the double possessive. If the possessor and the possessed are both animate, both constructions are possible. And this is the area where our discussion originated. These conclusions are based on the responses that I received. Sorry again for my failure to reply to you promptly. I just hope this failure has not led to my loss of chance to get your help when I have more questions to ask. Sincerely yours, Tong Zhimin tongzm@163.net (formerly tongzm@hotmail.com) |
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| LL Issue: | 10.1239 | |
| Date Posted: | 23-Aug-1999 | |
| Original Query: | Read original query | |
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