Lesson 61 - 65: Declension or inflection of nouns

61. This last-named possessive
expresses a variety of relations. Possession in some sense
is the most common. The kind of relation may usually be found by
expanding the possessive into an equivalent phrase: for example,
"Winter's rude tempests are gathering now" (i.e., tempests
that winter is likely to have); "His beard was of several days' growth" (i.e., growth which
several days had developed); "The forest's leaping panther
shall yield his spotted hide" (i.e., the panther which the forest
hides); "Whoso sheddeth man's blood" (blood that man
possesses).

How the possessive is formed.

62. As said before (Sec. 56),
there are only two case forms. One is the simple form of a word,
expressing the relations of nominative and objective; the other is
formed by adding 's to the simple form, making the
possessive singular. To form the possessive plural, only the
apostrophe is added if the plural nominative ends in -s; the
's is added if the plural nominative does not end in
-s.

Case Inflection.

Declension or inflection of
nouns.

63. The full declension of nouns
is as follows:-

	SINGULAR.	PLURAL.
1. Nom. and Obj.	lady	ladies
Poss.	lady's	ladies'
2. Nom. and Obj.	child	children
Poss.	child's	children's

A suggestion.

NOTE.-The difficulty that some students have in writing
the possessive plural would be lessened if they would remember
there are two steps to be taken:-

(1) Form the nominative plural according to Secs 39-53

(2) Follow the rule given in Sec. 62.

Special Remarks on the Possessive Case.

Origin of the possessive with its
apostrophe.

64. In Old English a large number
of words had in the genitive case singular the ending -es;
in Middle English still more words took this ending: for example,
in Chaucer, "From every schires ende," "Full worthi was he in his lordes werre
[war]," "at his beddes syde," "mannes herte [heart],"
etc.

A false theory.

By the end of the seventeenth century the present way of
indicating the possessive had become general. The use of the
apostrophe, however, was not then regarded as standing for the
omitted vowel of the genitive (as lord's for lordes):
by a false theory the ending was thought to be a contraction of
his, as schoolboys sometimes write, "George Jones his
book."

Use of the apostrophe.

Though this opinion was untrue, the apostrophe has proved a
great convenience, since otherwise words with a plural in -s
would have three forms alike. To the eye all the forms are now
distinct, but to the ear all may be alike, and the connection must
tell us what form is intended.

The use of the apostrophe in the plural also began in the
seventeenth century, from thinking that s was not a
possessive sign, and from a desire to have distinct forms.

Sometimes s is left out in the
possessive singular.

65. Occasionally the s is
dropped in the possessive singular if the word ends in a hissing
sound and another hissing sound follows, but the apostrophe remains
to mark the possessive; as, for goodness' sake, Cervantes'
satirical work.

In other cases the s is seldom omitted. Notice these
three examples from Thackeray's writings: "Harry ran upstairs to
his mistress's apartment;" "A postscript is added, as by the
countess's command;" "I saw what the governess's
views were of the matter."