The Noun Phrase

The Genitive Case

 Genitives take various shapes. They can be:

determiners: her computer, their cabin, our

opinion; (deictic and anaphoric)
proper nouns: Rosemary's baby, Nixon's
pardon, Ms.Trilling's book;
full noun phrases: the office manager's
desk, a child's toy, the tall guy's shoes.
 genitives are noun phrases and each can
contain its own determiner, just like any
other noun phrase.
 What does this modify in: This boy's father
 What would be the genitive construction
modifying father?
 What does a modify in a child's furniture?
What modifies furniture?
A genitive phrase can contain another
genitive phrase and that phrase can contain
another genitive phrase, and so on.
 What modifies what in My aunt's boyfriend's
mother's car?
 Each of these genitive phrases can be
paraphrased by a single genitive determiner:
her car, his mother, her boyfriend, my aunt.
1. Possessive Genitives – can be paraphrased
with have or own.
The child's bicycle was smashed to bits.
[The child had a bicycle.]
Weifang's pencil fell on the floor. [Weifang
had a pencil.]
Their yacht won't fit in this harbor. [They
own a yacht.]
A bully stole my kids' cookies at recess.
[My kids had cookies.]
Hamish's hair is black. [Hamish has hair.]
My mother is a surgeon. [I have a mother.]
 2.Subject genitives - the
relationship of the genitive word to
the noun it modifies is like the
relationship of a subject to its
predicate.
Susan’s application was denied.
Madonna’s performance was outstanding.
Picasso’s last painting was stolen from its
owners.
- The police didn't believe Mary's story.
- Hemingway's novels are exciting.
- The government was surprised by his
defection.
- Carol resented the child's refusal.
- The Dean's lecture was boring.
- Mozart's quartets are magnificent.

 Howis the following sentence ambiguous?

Marge's new novel is on the table
 3. Object genitives: In some genitive
constructions, the relationship of the
genitive word to the noun it modifies is
like the relationship of a direct object to
its verb.
Max's promotion made him happy.

The city's destruction was total.

She was upset by that neighbor's murder.
Freddie's eviction shocked everyone.
I was surprised by Nixon's pardon.
 Sometimes a genitive can be ambiguous.
Sylvia's photograph
Liz had heard about Jane's betrayal
Liz had heard about Jane's betrayal of her
friends.
Liz had heard about Jane's betrayal by her
boss.
 Nouns that are modified by subject and object
genitives are often, but not always, deverbal
nouns, i.e., nouns derived from verbs: betrayal,
refusal, eviction, and destruction; also the
nouns murder and pardon derive from identical
verb forms
4. Periphrastic genitive: genitive nouns are
not always marked by {‘s}. In Old English,
most genitives were marked with inflectional
suffixes but after the Norman invasion that
pattern changed somewhat. French genitives
have always been prepositional
constructions, e.g., la maison de Marie ("the
house of Marie"), and as a result of the
language contact between French and
English after the eleventh century, Modern
English uses both the inflection and the
preposition to mark genitive relationships.
Entities fairly high on the animacy
scale, people and higher order
creatures, require an inflected
possessive genitive—Teresa's book,
the dog's dish, the bird's perch.
 Inanimate nouns typically take an
of genitive—the shape of the rock,
the color of that hat, the top of
the table.
 There are, however, many contexts
in which the use of an inflected
genitive with an inanimate noun is
perfectly acceptable:
The building's design was very
functional.
 The of genitive is almost never used
to modify a human possessor. *The
coat of Jesse and *the office of
Marilyn
 While the periphrastic form of the genitive
can be used with any semantic type, it is
most often used when the noun being
modified is inanimate.
 For this reason some genitives are more
likely to be periphrastic than others.
Genitives that reflect part/whole
relationships and measurements are
frequently periphrastic.
 When a periphrastic genitive expresses a
part/ whole relationship, the noun phrase
being modified is the part and the NP
within the prepositional phrase refers to
the whole—the legs of the table, the side
of the cabinet. Of course, inflected
genitives can express part/whole
relationships, too, and here the inflected
noun (or genitive pronoun) refers to the
whole—the book's cover, a car's interior,
the dog's tail.
 More examples
The roof of the house blew off during the
big storm.
That woman scratched the hood of my car
with her keys.
The tree's branches swayed in the wind.
My car's battery is dead. / Its battery is
dead
 Genitives of measure have an interesting
history. In Old English, the plural genitive
marker was not {-s} as it is in Modern
English, but rather a vowel, usually -a.
Sometime later, vowel suffixes were lost
in English and so the plural genitive had
no ending at all. Eventually most plural
genitives took on the (-s) genitive marker.
However, the lack of a plural marker in
some genitive constructions is remnant of
the ancient form: a nine inch stick and a
two hour lecture.
 In
genitives of measure, the
measurement term is the noun head
and the entity being measured
always takes inflectional or
periphrastic genitive form.

the length of this room

the baby's length
 More examples
None of my students knows the
circumference of the earth.
The length of the trial surprised the
jurors.
She calculated the weight of the
shipment.
I was intimidated by the man's size.
Do you know Sally's weight?
Possessive Carol's suit was wrinkled.
The child's face was sunburned.

Subject Frank Lloyd Wright's homes

are priceless now.
The boy's lie outraged his
mother.
Object Daphne's promotion pleased
everyone.
Victoria was upset about the
rejection of her proposal.
Part/ whole The book's cover was torn.
The roof of the barn blew
off.
Measure The weight of the cargo was
calculated.
1. She wasn’t convinced by Tony’s
testimony.
2. The boy’s toy was stolen.
3. The windshield of my car was shattered.
4. Theo’s promotion surprised us.
5. Mary’s coat seems expensive.
6. The roofs of the houses were blown off.
7. The girl’s lie infuriated her parents.
8. The diameter of this circle is 6cm.
9. Their car is parked outside.
10. Our teacher’s lecture was inspiring.
11. We’ve heard about Sylvia’s eviction.
12. The length of the racing track is 15km.
13. The petals of that rose are so delicate.
14. My son’s weight concerns me a little.
15. The city’s devastation was in the news
 I am reading a novel of Austen‘s

Such constructions are highly

constrained in terms of form. The
noun head is usually indefinite, i.e.,
preceded by the article a. The
genitive NP (i.e., the NP carrying the
{-s} suffix) must have highly specific
reference; it often contains a
pronoun or a proper noun.
A friend of Bill's is coming over later.
An idea of yours has been adopted by
the boss.
An admirer of my mother's sent her a
dozen roses.
*The friend of Bill's is coming over is
ungrammatical as is *A friend of a
Bill's is coming over.
Demonstrative determiners can appear
in the noun head of a double genitive
construction.
I can't stand those cats of Susan's.
That music of Stan's is simply awful.
This idea of theirs is great.
In these sentences the NP is highly
definite; the speaker knows that the
hearer is familiar at some level with the
cats, the music, and the idea.
 Constructions like these are often used
emphatically.
I can't stand those cats of Susan's
sounds much stronger than
I can't stand Susan's cats
In fact, even a noun like child can be used
in an emphatic double genitive—
That child of mine will drive me insane!
The Queen of England's robe
The Wife of Bath's Tale
the dentist who lives around the corner 's car

Q: Recently, did your research assistant Judi

Smith make a grammatically interesting
statement regarding where her friend, Vickie,
parks at The Miami Herald?
A: Yes. She said, quote: "She comes and parks
in whoever's not here's space that day."