Lesson 66 - 68: Possesive Nouns

Possessive with compound expressions.

66. In compound expressions,
containing words in apposition, a word with a phrase, etc., the
possessive sign is usually last, though instances are found with
both appositional words marked.

Compare the following examples of literary usage:-

Do not the Miss Prys, my neighbors, know the amount of my
income, the items of my son's, Captain Scrapegrace's,
tailor's bill-Thackeray.

The world's pomp and power sits there on this hand: on that,
stands up for God's truth one man, the poor miner Hans
Luther's son.-Carlyle.

They invited me in the emperor their master's
name.-Swift.

I had naturally possessed myself of Richardson the
painter's thick octavo volumes of notes on the "Paradise
Lost."-DE QUINCEY.

They will go to Sunday schools to teach classes of little
children the age of Methuselah or the dimensions of Og the king
of Bashan's bedstead."smcap">-Holmes.

More common still is the practice of turning the possessive into
an equivalent phrase; as, in the name of the emperor their
master, instead of the emperor their master's name.

Possessive and no noun limited.

67. The possessive is sometimes
used without belonging to any noun in the sentence; some such word
as house, store, church, dwelling,
etc., being understood with it: for example,-

Here at the fruiterer's the Madonna has a tabernacle of
fresh laurel leaves.-Ruskin.

It is very common for people to say that they are disappointed
in the first sight of St. Peter's."smcap">-Lowell.

I remember him in his cradle at St. James's."smcap">-Thackeray.

Kate saw that; and she walked off from the
don's.-De Quincey.

The
double possessive.

68. A peculiar form, a double
possessive, has grown up and become a fixed idiom in modern
English.

In most cases, a possessive relation was expressed in Old
English by the inflection -es, corresponding to 's.
The same relation was expressed in French by a phrase corresponding
to of and its object. Both of these are now used side by
side; sometimes they are used together, as one modifier, making a
double possessive. For this there are several reasons:-

Its advantages: Euphony.

(1) When a word is modified by a, the,
this, that, every, no, any,
each, etc., and at the same time by a possessive noun, it is
distasteful to place the possessive before the modified noun, and
it would also alter the meaning: we place it after the modified
noun with of.

Emphasis.

(2) It is more emphatic than the simple possessive, especially
when used with this or that, for it brings out the
modified word in strong relief.

Clearness.

(3) It prevents ambiguity. For example, in such a sentence as,
"This introduction of Atterbury's has all these advantages"
(Dr. Blair), the statement clearly means only one thing,-the
introduction which Atterbury made. If, however, we use the phrase
of Atterbury, the sentence might be understood as
just explained, or it might mean this act of introducing Atterbury.
(See also Sec. 87.)

The following are some instances of double
possessives:-

This Hall of Tinville's is dark, ill-lighted except where
she stands.-Carlyle.

Those lectures of
Lowell's had a great influence with me, and I used to like
whatever they bade me like."smcap">-Howells

Niebuhr remarks that no pointed sentences of
Casar's can have come down to us."smcap">-Froude.

Besides these famous books of Scott's and Johnson's,
there is a copious "Life" by Thomas Sheridan."smcap">-Thackeray

Always afterwards on occasions of ceremony, he wore that quaint
old French sword of the Commodore's.-"smcap">E. E. Hale.

Exercises.

(a) Pick out the possessive nouns, and tell whether each
is appositional, objective, or subjective.

(b) Rewrite the sentence, turning the possessives into
equivalent phrases.

1. I don't choose a hornet's nest about my ears.

2. Shall Rome stand under one man's awe?

3. I must not see thee Osman's bride.

4.

At lovers' perjuries,

They say, Jove laughs.

5. The world has all its eyes on Cato's son.

6. My quarrel and the English queen's are one.

7.

Now the bright morning star, day's
harbinger,
Comes dancing from the
East.

8. A man's nature runs either to herbs or weeds; therefore, let
him seasonably water the one, and destroy the other.

9.

'Tis all men's office to speak
patience
To those that wring under the load of
sorrow.

10.

A jest's prosperity lies in the
ear
Of him that hears it, never in the
tongue
Of him that makes it.

11. No more the juice of Egypt's grape shall moist his lip.

12.

There Shakespeare's self, with every
garland crowned,
Flew to those fairy climes his
fancy sheen.

13.

What supports me? dost thou
ask?
The conscience, Friend, to have lost them
[his eyes] overplied
In liberty's
defence.

14.

Or where Campania's plain forsaken
lies,
A weary waste expanding to the
skies.

15.

Nature herself, it seemed, would
raise
A minster to her Maker's
praise!