ENGB016 Практическа граматика на английски език

Case

1. Common case and genitive case

We distinguish between two cases of nouns: the common case (unmarked) and the genitive case (?) (marked).

The basic meaning of the genitive is to express (?) possession.

In speech the genitive is realized only in the singular, where it takes one of the three forms /s/, /z/, or (?) /iz/, as in dentist’s, writer’s, boss’s salary.

In writing, the genitive is realized in the singular by apostrophe + s (boy’s), and in the regular plural by the apostrophe following the plural –s (boys’). As a result the spoken form /boiz/ may realize three forms of the noun boy as follows:

1. The boys were arrested.                                 [plural, common case]
2. The boy’s testimony was irrelevant.              [singular, genitive case]
3. The boys’ girlfriends were not interrogated.  [plural, genitive case]

* Some nouns with irregular plural have the same genitive ending (spelled ’s) in both singular and plural forms: 

            e.g. man – man’s, men – men’s; (other examples?) > child – child’s, children – children’s.

* The genitive form of Greek names of more than one syllable which end in –s is spelled just with an apostrophe: 

            e.g. Euripides’  /di:z/ plays, Socrates’ wife. 

* There is a vacillation both in the pronunciation and in the spelling of English names ending in –s, but most commonly the pronunciation is (?) /iz/ and the spelling is an apostrophe only:

            e.g. Burns’ (Burns’s less common) poem /nziz/ (/nz/ less common)

                  Dickens’ (Dickens’s less common) novels /nziz/ (/nz/ less common)

3. The ’s-genitive and the of-genitive

In many cases there is a similarity in function and meaning between a noun in the genitive case and the same noun as head of a prepositional phrase with of.

The ’s-genitive is favoured for animate nouns, particularly those referring to human beings and higher animals and collective nouns.
- Personal names: George Washington’s statue
- Personal nouns (human beings): my sister-in-law’s problems
- Animal nouns (higher animals): the dog’s collar
- (?) Collective nouns: the government’s plans
- Geographical names: Europe’s natural resources
- Temporal nouns: today’s paper
- Locative nouns: the earth’s surface
- Nouns of special relevance to human activity: the mind’s development, my life’s aim, science’s influence, the novel’s structure 

4. Genitive meanings

1. Possessive Genitive
    Mrs Johnson’s passport (Mrs Johnson has a passport.)
2. Subjective Genitive
    the student’s application (The student applied for…)
3. Objective Genitive
    the prisoner’s release (… released the prisoner.) 
4. Genitive of measure
    ten days’ absence (The absence lasted ten days.)

5. The grammatical status of the genitive

the bicycle/ her bicycle/ Jenny’s bicycle/ my daughter’s bicycle

A horse’s hind leg – the hind leg of a horse

There are several women’s universities in Tokyo (several universities for women)

the Queen of England’s heir, my father and mother’s album, the University of Minnesota’s President; the teacher of music’s room

Bob’s car is faster than John’s. [ellipsis]

We’ll meet at Bill’s. 
Let’s have dinner at Tiffany’s.
I am going to the dentist’s.

some friends of Jim’s 
an invention of Gutenberg’s

the city of London, the month of January, a riddle of a woman

(This summary is based on Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech and Svartvik’s A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language, 1985 and Molhova’s The Noun, 1992)