Tema 16: EXPRESIÓN DE LA POSESIÓN

In present English we distinguish two cases in substantives: a common case and a genitive case,
which is sometimes called the “possessive case”.
1. ORIGIN
Syntax of the genitive in OE. In O.E. the genitive was used much as e.g. in German and Latin.
Besides the possessives, subjective, objective, partitive, descriptive genitives etc, we find genitives
governed by various verbs and adjectives. But in the course of time this extensive use has become
much more restrictive, and nowadays the genitive is chiefly used as the adjunct (secondary) of a
primary placed after the genitive while the opposite order was frequent in O.E., as it is still in German.

Form of the genitive in OE. The form, too, of the genitive has undergone considerable changes.
In O.E. it had the following endings: -s, -e, –a, -n, - (singular: engles, grefe, handa, guman, dohtor;
nominatives: engel, giefu, hand, guma, dohtor ); -ena (plural: gumena; nominative: guma). With the
decay of inflexional endings in Middle English, the ending “-´s” is the only one that has survived into
Modern English, and this has been supplemented by the construction “of” + the uninflected form of the
noun.

2. THE FORM OF THE GENITIVE

The genitive of a noun is formed as follows: singular nouns add apostrophe + “s” (-´s): the boy’s
book, Tom’s house. But with Greek names of more than one syllable ending in “-s”, we use only the
apostrophe: Hercules’ labours. There is vacillation in the spelling of many other names ending in the
voiced sibilant /z/; the normal spelling is with apostrophe only, though apostrophe plus “s” (´s) is not
rare in this case: Burns’ (or Burns’s) poems. The normal pronunciation of “s + ´s” appears to be /iz/.
But names ending in other sibilants than /z/ have the regular /iz/ genitive: Ross’s theories, George’s
Kingdom. The genitive suffix is omitted after words in /s/ or /z/ in the phrase “for……sake”: for
conscience’ sake/for goodness’ sake.

Plural nouns ending in “-s” add apostrophe only (s’), and there is no phonetic addition: my
friends’ jewels. The genitive plural of those words which may be confused with their genitive singular
forms is used very seldom indeed; we prefer: the jewels of my friends. Genitive plurals are, however,
frequent in such more or less set phrases as may be considered compounds, e.g. boys’ clothes, lovers’
quarrels. Plural nouns not ending in “-s” are formed by adding apostrophe plus “-s” (´s), that is, the,
same suffix as in the genitive singular: the men’s room, children’s play, the women’s society.

3. PRONUNCIATION
The rules for the pronunciation of the genitive suffix are identical with the rules for the
pronunciation of the s-suffix in the plural of nouns: /z/ after voiced non-sibilants (boy’s, man’s); /s/
after voiceless non-sibilants (Smith’s, count’s); /iz/ after sibilants (horse’s, judge’s, James’s).

4. THE MEANING OF THE GENITIVE

The number of possible relations between a genitive and its headword, regarded from the point of
view of meaning, is practically unlimited. Zandvoort distinguishes the following: Possessive genitive.
The “central” but far from the only use of the genitive is to express possession. If the headword
denotes an object, the genitive may denote the possessor: my uncle’s car, Mrs Johnson’s passport.
Subjective genitive. If the headword denotes an action, the genitive may denote the agent: his father’s
consent. Objective genitive. If the genitive indicates the object or receiver of the action: Caesar’s*
murderers, the family’s support. The objective genitive is not very usual in ordinary English, which
prefers the “of construction”: the murderers of Caesar. But the construction in the genitive is rather
more frequent when the genitive may be interpreted as one of possession: Helen’s lover.
 Many other possible relations are not covered by these three terms. Among them Quirk
distinguishes: genitive of origin as in the general’s letter, the girl’s story; descriptive genitive as in a
summer’s day, a doctor’s degree.

5. FUNCTIONS OF THE GENITIVE

We can find the genitive functioning in two different ways: the attributive genitive, when the
genitive precedes a headword to which it is grammatically subordinated, and the independent
genitive, which appears in a construction in which the headword is not expressed: at the butcher’s.

5.1. Attributive function of the genitive

Combinations of an attributive genitive plus headword fall into two groups: specifying genitive, if
the noun in the genitive refers to a particular or specific person or thing (the doctor’s car, England’s
greatness); classifying genitive, when the noun in the genitive denotes the class or kind to which the
person or thing denoted by the headword belongs ( sheep’s eyes, a giant’s task, a doctor’s degree).

Let us compare the two types of attributive genitive and we shall see that the difference is great in
several points: pronunciation, groups consisting of a specifying genitive have two strong stresses,
and, indeed, this may be said to be the normal stress pattern for a genitive construction. But in the
examples under the classifying genitive, there is only one strong stress, a type of stress pattern which
serves to indicate that the two elements belong together. Semantic differences. Semantically as well
as phonetically groups with classifying genitive are more closely connected than those with a
specifying genitive. In fact, apart from the spelling, many of them are in the nature of “set phrases” or
“compounds”. Several phrases of this kind are now always written with no spacing: “batsman”,
“statesman”, bridesmaid”… .

Attributive words preceding a genitive: any attributive words preceding a classifying genitive
refer to the group as a whole, not to the genitive by itself, whereas an attributive word preceding a
specifying genitive refers to the word in the genitive. According to Zandvoort: we have done a good
day’s work (classifying); my dear mother’s picture (specifying). This is the surest test to tell a
specifying from a classifying genitive. Usage: The specifying genitive is the “freer” of the two,
because it is as a rule less limited in its choice of headwords than the classifying genitive of the same
noun. Thus “child’s” as a specifying genitive can take many headwords: “the child’s father/ mother/
parents/ toys etc…” it will be difficult, however, to find any thing like the same number of examples in
a classifying function. On the other hand, especially with names of animals and names of things, a
classifying genitive may be current in cases where a specifying genitive would hardly be used: “a
stone’s throw” (classifying) but “the size of the stone” (specifying); “the stone’s size” would be
possible in literary English only.

5.2. Independent function of the genitive

We have said that when the genitive is used without a headword, it may be called the
independent genitive. We can find three special uses of this: semi-independent or elliptic genitive.
Sometimes the headword is omitted because it occurs in the immediate context: I parked my car next
to John’s. in the case of nouns which for some reasons are not often found in the genitive, expressions
with “that of/those of” are used instead: his name and career, like that of Wilbeforce and his friends,
are a reminder that… .

Another variant of the independent genitive is the so-called post genitive: a work of Milton’s,
i.e. “of +genitive of either a proper name or an appellative designating one particular person. Quirk
and Schibsbye also use anotherterm for this construction: the double genitive. The substantival
member before “of” is either indefinite plural, or a noun with the indefinite article, a numeral or an
indefinite, interrogative or demonstrative pronoun attached: Lyrics of Donne’s happen to us as if they
had been translated from the Chinese, two friends of Jack’s, what friends of my father’s? The post
genitive enable us to make a distinction between: a portrait of my father (one representing him,
objective relation), a portrait of my father’s (one belonging to him or painted by him). A third type of
independent genitive is the so-called local genitive. The genitive of institutions of some kind (St.
Paul’s), of a person’s home (uncle’s), and shops (butcher’s) are used substantially as indications of
locality; in these cases the complement is not expressed elsewhere in the context: St. Paul’s was
damaged, I dined at my uncle’s, what did you buy at the butcher’s? The local genitive occurs
especially in prepositional adjuncts of place, but, with the exception of nouns denoting relationship,
may also be used in other functions: subject, object, etc…: the tobacconist’s was closed, old St. Paul’s
was burnt in 1666.

6. THE GROUP GENITIVE

This is the name of a construction where the “-s” suffix is added to the last element of a noun
phrase consisting of a postmodified or coordinated noun head: my son-in-law’s bicycle, somebody
else’s hat (postmodified), an hour and a half’s talk (coordinated). In formal English the group genitive
occurs mainly in established phrases such as the above; but in colloquial speech it is used much more
freely: one of the girl’s in my class grandmother, the men we met yesterday’s wife.

Distinction between coordinated and group genitive. With coordinated noun phrases, a
distinction is made between the coordinated genitive where each element has the suffix and the group
genitives where the suffix is appended only to the last element. Let us see some examples: John’s and
Mary’s books (some books are John’s, some are Mary’s), coordinated genitive; John and Mary’s book
(all are jointly owned), group genitive. Nouns in apposition. Nouns in apposition have the group
genitives when the complement of the genitive is stated: “at Smith, the bookseller’s office” (“office” is
the complement); if the complement is omitted, the suffix may also be attached to the first element, or
to both: at Smith’s, the bookseller; at Smith’s, the bookseller’s; at Smith, the bookseller’s.

7. GENITIVE AND OF-CONSTRUCTION: THEIR USE

In the combination of the two constructions three things can happen: a) use of the genitive to the
exclusion of the of-adjunct; b) use of both genitive and of adjunct; c) use of the of-adjunct to the
exclusion of the genitive.

7.1. Use of the genitive to the exclusion of the of-adjunct

Names of relations that occur without a preceding attributive word –(grand) father, (grand)
mother, uncle, aunt- nearly always prefer the genitive-construction to the one with an of-adjunct:
mother’s birthday. When these words are preceded by a possessive pronoun, English continues to
prefer the genitive, except for the sake of special emphasis, when an of-adjunct may be used: Illness
prevented him from attending his mother’s funeral; the death of his uncle was a new shock to him (for
emphasis). Classifying genitives are mostly inseparable from their head-words, so that there can, as a
rule, be no question of replacing them by an of-adjunct. But in some cases, where the connection
between the genitive and head-words is less close, an of-adjunct may occur: a doctor’s degree, a
planter’s life, a lady’s maid, the life of a planter. Nouns denoting time whether singular or plural are
exceptional in that they are generally found in the genitive: two or three minute’s hunting, an hour’s
work. There is often a difference in meaning between these genitive forms and corresponding
expressions with “of”: yesterday’s paper, an invention of yesterday (=recent).

Post genitive, whether singular or plural. We have already see the distinction in meaning between
the post-genitive and the of-adjunct in some examples given above: a portrait of my father’s, a portrait
of my father. The local genitive being, not an adjunct to another noun, but the head of the phrase,
cannot be replaced by an of-adjunct, although it may form part of one: at St. Andrew’s/Vicar of St.
Andrew’s. With a subjective genitive preceding a gerund, the use of the genitive is the rule: That’s
Dr. Guynne’s doing. In a number of set phrases, which include examples with “length”, “throw”, and
“worth” which are idiomatic expressions and do not permit an expression with “of”: at arm’s length,
within arm’s reach, at a stone’s throw, their money’s worth… .

7.2. Alternation of the genitive with an of-adjunct

With proper names of persons. With proper names of persons the genitive is commoner than the
of-adjunct, the latter being used for the sake of balance, or in order to give more prominence to the
proper name: Shakespeare’s plays, the works of Shakespeare (on a title-page), Dickens’ novels
(emphasises “novels” as much as “Dickens”), the novels of Charles Dickens (draws attention to the
name of the author). If the headword requires an indefinite article, the of-adjunct is the only possible
construction: In addition to this, there is informal English extensive use of the genitive of geographical
names having an association of individuality or a more or less pronounced association of
personification: France’s heartless neglect, London’s art treasures, Europe’s difficulties. If there is not
such connotation, the of-adjunct is used: he was a great admirer of Chaucer.

Common nouns denoting a person in the singular (apart from classifying genitives). The choice
between the specifying genitive and the of-adjunct is usually determined by the same considerations as
in the case of proper names: his hero’s boyhood (“boyhood” is the principal idea), the boyhood of his
hero (emphasises “hero”). Some names of animals are frequently found in the genitive, while others
are used in the construction with “of”. The kind of animal is a determining factor in the choice of them.
As we have indicated, Quirk says that the higher animals are more likely to have the s-genitive than
the lower animals. On the other hand, Zandvoort recognises that with the names of the largest and most
familiar animals the specifying genitive exists side by side of the smaller and less known species: the
elephant’s trunk/ the trunk of the elephant; his horse’s tail/the tail of his horse; the jaws of the bee/ the
wings of a butterfly.

It has already been said that an of-adjunct is more usual than an objective genitive: the murder
of Caesar (more frequent) Caesar’s murder. When in collectives the idea of the persons in question is
to be prominent, they are often found in the genitive (the Government’s delaying tactics) but without a
connotation of the individuals the genitive is not common (the family’s own concern). In written
English some nouns denoting things which, according to Quirk, are “of special interest to human
activity”, may be used in the genitive: the body’s needs, love’s spirit, duty’s call, my life’s aim, the
novel’s structure… . Here also belong nouns with a non-countable content used in the expression
“for…sake”: for very decency’s sake. Some nouns denoting measures and values are found in both
constructions: he stood at the edge of the water/at the water’s edge.

7.3. Use of the of-adjunct to the exclusion of the genitive

With nouns denoting things (with the exception noted above): the blue of the sky looked
marvellous. In cases where the genitive singular and plural are identical in sound the genitive
plural is generally avoided, specially in Spoken English, unless the plural concept is otherwise
indicted, or obvious for other reasons: the luggage of the passengers, these two passengers’ luggage
(plural concept indicated by “two”), my parents’ surprise (it is obvious from the noun “parents”).
Adjectives used substantivally with a plural value cannot be used in the genitives: the spiritual
welfare of the poor. The extensive use of the of-combination, which first appeared in the 12 th century,
is to some extent due to French influence, though this influence should not be exaggerated as we have
seen in the treatment of this subject.

8. POSSESSIVES
These consist traditionally of two series: a) the attributive my, your, his, her, its, our, your, their;
b) the predicative, nominal mine, yours, his, hers, ours, yours, theirs. Compare the two types of
possessives with the genitive of nouns which is identical in the two functions: John’s car-my son’s car-
his car; the car is John’s-the car is his son’s-the car is hers. Unlike many other languages, English uses
possessives to refer to parts of the body and personal belongings as well as in several other
expressions: she has broken her leg, he put his hand into his pocket. The definite article is, however,
usual in prepositional phrases concerned with the object, or, in passive constructions, the subject: she
took me by the hand, I must have been hit in the head with a hammer. Note: the nominal series is used
to replace the attributive one noun: this is my house-this is mine. The expression of mine, of yours,
etc., means one of my…, one of your…,etc: a friend of mine = one of my friends. They are used in the
same way as the double genitive: a friend of John’s-a friend of his = one of his friends.