Case and Gender

English nouns have a two case system: the unmarked common case (boy) and the marked genitive case (boy´s) when the -s morpheme is added. The central use of the genitive, but not the only one, is to express possession (possessive case).

The meanings of the genitive

a) possessive genitive: my son´s wife, Mrs Johnson´s passport = my son has a wife, Mrs J. has…

b) subjective genitive: the boy´s application, his parents´ consent = the boy applied, his parents consented

c) genitive of origin: the girl´s story, the general´s letter = the girl told a story, the general wrote a letter

d) objective genitive: the family´s support, the boy´s release

e) descriptive genitive: a women´s college, a summer´s day, doctor´s degree, cow´s milk = a college for women, a summer day, a doctoral degree, milk from cows

f) the elliptic genitive: My bicycle is better than John´s., His memory is like an elephant´s. We need a ladder. We can borrow our neighbour´s. = the head is not expressed

g) the local genitive: my aunt´s, St Paul´s (Cathedral), the butcher´s, the chemist´s, the barber´s = institutionalized expressions where no head needs to be mentioned

h) the double genitive: a work of Milton´s, a friend of his father´s, a friend of my parents´ = combination of the inflected and periphrastic genitive

The -s and of genitive:

- two types of the genitive:

1. the inflected genitive (the –s genitive): apostrophe + s suffix or an apostrophe only, after the modifying noun. E.g. the children´s toys, the body´s temperature

2. the periphrastic genitive (the of-genitive): a structure of postmodification E.g. the toys of the children, the temperature of the body.

The forms of the –s genitive

In writing there are 2 forms: with an apostrophe + s (boy´s) and with apostrophe only (boys´):

´s added to sg personal nouns: child´s dream

´s added to sg personal nouns ending in –s: actress´s career

´s added to the plural of irregular personal nouns: children´s games

´ added to the plural of personal nouns ending in –s: girls´ school

Since the genitive inflection has the same speech form as the regular plural, we have to make a distinction between nouns - those that have –s plural and those that do not. Regular plurals have the zero genitive (dogs´, cats´, horses´).

Pronunciation

In speech the - s genitive has 4 forms /s/, /z/, /iz/ and zero.

The rules for pronunciation of the genitive suffix are identical with the rules for pronunciation of the -s suffix in the plural and the 3^rd person singular.

/s/ after a voiceless sound: Jack´s job, month´s salary, Pat´s handbag

/z/ after a voiced sound: Ben´s opinion, Bill´s bill, Bob´s house

/iz/ after a sibilant: the boss´s office

The zero form is used with plural nouns and with Greek names of more than one syllable, e.g. Socrates´ /-tiz/ wife, Euripides´ /-diz/ plays.

Uses of the –s genitive

Animate nouns (životné)

a) personal names: George Washington´s statue

b) personal nouns: the boy´s new shirt

c) indefinite pronouns: anyone´s guess, someone´s responsibility

d) collective nouns: the government´s conviction, the party´s elder statesmen, the company´s working capital, the nation´s social security

e) higher animals and some lower animals: the horse´s neck, the lion´s tail, the dog´s bark, an ant´s nest, a bee´s sting (only with living animals), dead animals: sheepskin, beef broth