§ 19. Sometimes we find the use of -'s and of together. This is called a double genitive.

e.g. He was an old business client of Grandfather's (=one of Grandfather's clients).

§ 20. A noun in the genitive case may be used without a head- word. This is called the independent genitive.

The independent genitive is used with nouns denoting trade and relationship or with proper names. It serves to denote a build- ing (e.g. a school, a house, a hospital, a church) or a shop. It is mainly found in prepositional phrases.

e.g. I was in the grocer's and I heard some women say it. He asked her how she liked living at her daughter's. They were married at St. Paul's. Mrs White ran the confectioner's very competently. He asked her to choose a restaurant and she suggested Scott's.

The Functions of Nouns in the Sentence

§ 21. Nouns may have different functions in the sentence. They may serve as:

1) The subject,

e.g. Life consists in accepting one's duty.

2) an object (direct, indirect and prepositional),

e.g. You did such splendid work.

General Drake handed the man his medal. He won't listen to any advice.

3) a predicative (non-prepositional and prepositional),

e.g. The town has always been a quiet and dignified little place. The place was in disorder.

4) An objective predicative,

e.g. They elected him president of the club.

5) a subjective predicative,

e.g. He was appointed squadron commander.

6) various adverbial modifiers (usually as part of prepositional phrases),

e.g. I lived near Victoria station in those years. He spoke in a different tone.

7) an attribute (in the genitive case, in the common case and as part of prepositional phrases),

e.g. His officer's uniform gave slimness to his already heavy fig- ure.

For some time he read all the travel books he could lay his hands on.

He set off on a tour of inspection.

8) An apposition,

e.g. He told us about his father, a teacher, who died in the war.