Many things …….

1st part : Introduction.

2nd part : Origin.

3rd part: the form of the genitive.

4th part :the meaning of genitive.

5th part : the functions of genitive.

6th part: the genitive and the of-construction.

7th part : the possessives.

8th part: conclusion.

9th part: bibliography.

1.Introduction

Case is defined by Quirk as “ a grammatical category that can express a number of different
relationships between nominal elements”.

In present English we distinguish two cases in substantives: a common case ,which is

sometimes called “the possessive case”,. But it should be borne in mind that although the
central use of the genitive is to express possession the label does not adequately apply to all
uses of them.

2.Origin.

In O.E. the genitive was used much as for instance in German and Latin.

Nowadays the genitive is chiefly used as the adjunct of primary placed after the genitive
while the opposite order was frequent in O.E., as it is still in German.

2.2.Form of the genitive in O.E.

The form of the genitive has undergone considerable changes since O.E. times.Then it
changed according to gender and stem-class and had the following endings:

Ending Genitive

Singular -s engles

-e grefe

-a handa

-n guman

- dothter

Plural ena gumena

With the decay of inflexional endings which took place in Middle English, the ending “-s”
is the only one that has survived into Modern English, and this has been supplemented by a
new construction consisting of the preposition “of” followed by the uninflected form of the
noun.

3.The form of the genitive: singular nouns.

They add apostrophe plus “-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 Xerses´ army

And there is a vacillation in the spellingof many other names ending in the voiced sisilant
/z/;the normal spelling is with apostrophe only,though apostrophe only,though apostrophe
plus “-s” is not rare in this case.The normal ponunciation appears to be / iz /.

Burns´ poems Dickens´ novels

But names ending in other sibilants than /z/ have regular /iz/ genitive.
Another important thing is that the genitive suffix is omitted after words in / S / or / Z /. In
the phrase “ for…..sake”:

For conscence´ sake for goodness´sake

3.2.Plural nouns ending in “-s”.

They add apostrophe only (s´),and there is no phonetic addition.

The boy´s house

My friends´jewels

The genitive plural of those words which may be confused with their genitive singular
forms is used very seldom indeed.

The horses of the soldiers

The jewels of my friends

3.3.Plural nouns not ending in “-s”.

They are a very limited number.They are formed by adding apostrophe plus “-s”, that is, the
same suffix as in the genitive singular.

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 inlimited: Zandvoot distinguishes the following:

4.1.Relations between the genitive and its headword.

4.1.1-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

4.1.2.Subjective genitive.

If the headword denotes action, the genitive may denote the agent.
His father´s consent

4.1.3.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 genitiveis rather more frequent when the genitive may be
interpreted as one of possession.

Helen´s lover Sylvia´s admirers

4.1.4.Many other possible relations are not covered by these three terms.Among them
Quirk distinguishes:

4.1.4.1.Genitive of origin as in:

the general´s letter the girl´s story

4.1.4.2.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:

a) when the genitives precedes a headword to which it is grammatically subordinated.In this

function it is called the attributive genitive.

It is my mother´s hat at a yard´s distance

b) in a construction in which the headword is not expressed,though it may be explicit or

implicit in the context.In this function it is called the independent function.

 
My car is faster than John´s

At the butcher´s

5.1Attributive function of the genitive.

Combinations of an attributive genitive plus headword fall into two groups:

a)Specifying genitive.

If the noun in the genitive refers to a particular or specific person or thing:

My mother´s picture

England´s greatness the doctor´s car

b)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

Thus,”sheep´s eyes” are not the eyes of one particular sheep, but a kind of eyes or glances.

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:

5.2.1semi-independent or elliptic genitive.

Sometimes the headword is omitted because it occurs in the immediate context, either
before or after the noun in the genitive:

I parked my car next to John´s

John´s is a nice house

Since there is a noun in the context that can be regarded as the headword of the genitive
here, it has been suggested that this type should be called “ semi-independent”.Other
grammarians such as Quirk use another term for this constructions elliptic genitive.
 

5.2.2.post-genitive or double genitive.

A variant of the independent genitive is the so-called “post-genitive”.This term is

sometimes used for the construction that we have in:

He is a friend of my father´s

A work of Milton´s

“of+genitive of either a proper name or an appellative designating one particular person,

Quirk also use another term for this construction: “double genitive”.

This post-genitive enables us to made a distinction between :

A portrait of my father ( one representating him, objective relation)

A portrait of my father´s (one belonging to him or possibly one painted by him)

5.2.3.Local genitive.

A third type of independent genitive is the so-called “ local genitive”.The genitive of

propernames (St. Paul´s),of relationship (uncle´s), and trademen´s designations(butcher´s)
are used substantivally as indications of locality; in these casesthe 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

5.2.3.1.To indicate an institutionof some kind ( a church,hotel,theatre,hospital,department

store….)

Claridge´s His father was vicar at St. Andrews

5.2.3.2.To indicate a shop.This association here is that of the shop seen from customer´s
point of view.

His wife left the dressmaker´s to go and play bridge.

5.2.3.3.To indicate a person´s house or home.There the genitive has an association of the
host-guest relationship, not simply of locality.
She left her husband and went to his father´s

5.2.3.4.Functions.

The local genitive occurs especially in prepositional adjuncts of place,but,with the

exceptionof nouns denoting relationship, may also be used in other functions:
subject,object,etc…

The tobacconist´s was closed

When there are two ways of denoting a place ( St.Paul´s—St.Paul´s cathedral ),the shorter
is usually the more familiar, the longer the more formal way.

6.Genitive and of-construction:their use.

Quirk says that the main factor governing the choice of the one or the other form is the
animate or rather personal quality of the modifying noun.Nouns denoting persons, whether
proper names (John´s car) or ordinary countable nouns (the student´s car),can always take
inflected genitives.It can also be used with animals.The general rule here is that what he
calls “higher animals” are more likely to have the –s genitive than what he calls “lower
animals”.So the of-construction is chiefly used with nouns denoting lower animals and with
inanimate nouns.Nevertheless, there are numerous inanimate nouns which can often take
the –s genitive;they may be characterized as “being of special interest to human
activity”,denoting parts of the body (brain,mind) cultural activities(orchestra,play),means of
transpot(ship,radio,…) and so forth.

In the combination of the two constructions three things can happen:

a) use of the genitive to 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.

a)use of the genitive to exclusion of the of-adjunct.

--names of relations: names of relations that occur without a preceding attreibutive word-
(grand) father, (grand) mother, uncle, aunt…-nearly always prefer the genitive-construction
to the one with an of-adjunct:

mother´s birthday
--classifying genitives:they are mostly inseparable from their head-words.so that there can,
as a rule. Be no question of replacing them by an adjunct.But in some cases, where the
connection between genitive and head-words is less close, an of-adjunct may occur:

A doctor´s degree

A lady´s maid

--nouns denoting time: two or three minutes´shunting

an hour´s work

--post-genitive:we have already see the distinction in meaning between the post-genitive an
the of-adjunct in sime examples given above:

a portrait of my father´s

a portrait of my father

--the local genitive: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

--in a number of set phrases: these include examples with”reach”,”length”,”throw” and

“worth” which are idiomatized and do not permit an expression with of.

At arm´s length

Within arm´s reach

b)alternation of the genitive with an of-adjunct.

--with proper names of persons:there is commoner the construction the genitive, the of-
construction 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 ( emphasizes novels as much as Dickens)

The novels of Dickens( draws attention to the name of the author)

--names of animals: higher animals: the –s construction

lower animals: of-construction

--things of special interest to human activity: may be used in the genitive.

The body´s need

Love´s spirit

c)use of the of-adjunct to the exclusion of the genitive.

--with nouns denoting things: the blue of the sky looked marvellous

--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-construction,which first appeared in the 12th century, is to some
extent due to French influence,though this influence should be exaggerated as we have seen
in the treatment of this subject.

7.the 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.

Unlike many other languages, English uses possessives to refer to parts of the body and
personal belonging as well as in several other expressions_

She has broken her leg

He put his hand into his pocket

The nominal series is used to replace the attributive one noun:

This is my house------this house is mine

8.Conclusion.

As you have seen, there are several ways of expressing possession,it depends on the type of
thing it refers to.

9.Bibliography.
-Quirk,R.”A grammar of Contemporary English”.Longman.London.1973.

-Zandvoort,R.W.”A handbook of English grammar”.Longman.London.1975.