- •The Subject Matter of Grammar
- •The Evolution of English Grammars
- •The XX th Century Linguistic Schools
- •Prague Linguistic School (Functional Linguistics)
- •American Descriptive Linguistics
- •Transformational and Transformational Generative Grammar
- •Semantic Syntax
- •Methods of Linguistic Analysis
- •Parsing (Traditional Syntactic Analysis)
- •The Oppositional Method
- •The Distributional method
- •The ic Method (method of immediate constituents)
- •The Transformational Method
- •The Method of Deep and Surface Structures
- •The Functional Sentence Perspective Method (fsp)
- •The Componential Method
- •The Contextual Method
- •The Levels of Language
- •The Morphological Structure of me
- •The Classifications of Morphemes
- •Paradigmatics and Syntagmatics
- •The Asymmetry of a Linguistic Sign
- •Parts of Speech Classifications of Parts of Speech.
- •Notionals and Functionals
- •Heterogeneity
- •Field and Periphery
- •Subcategorization
- •Onomaseological approach
- •The Noun The General Properties of a Noun
- •The Category of Gender.
- •The Category of Number
- •The Category of Case
- •Debated Problems within the Category of Case
- •Genitive Constructions (n’s n)
- •The Article Debated Problems
- •The Functions of Articles in a Sentence
- •The Verb The General Properties of a Verb
- •The Category of Tense
- •Classifications of Tenses
- •The Future Tense
- •The Present Tense
- •The Past Tense
- •The Future-in-the-Past Tense
- •The Category of Aspect
- •The Category of Time Relation (or Correlation)
- •The Category of Voice
- •The Category of Mood
- •The Indicative Mood
- •The Imperative Mood
- •The Subjunctive Mood
- •Points of Similarities with the Finites
- •Points of Differences with the Finites
- •Debated Problems within The Verbals
- •The Functions of Non-Finites
- •Types of Syntax
- •The theory of the phrase
- •Devices of Connecting Words in a Phrase
- •Debated Problems within the Theory of the Phrase
- •Classifications of Phrases
- •The theory of the simple sentence
- •The Definition of a Sentence
- •Syntactic Modelling of the Sentence
- •Semantic Modelling of the Sentence
- •The Notion of a Syntactic Paradigm
- •Structural Classification of Simple Sentences
- •Predicative Constructions Within a simple sentence we distinguish primary and secondary (independent/ dependent) elements, the structural nucleus and its adjuncts.
- •Syntactic Processes
- •The Principal Parts of a Simple Sentence
- •The Secondary Parts of a Simple Sentence
- •An Object
- •An Adverbial Modifier
- •An Attribute
- •Debated Problems within a Simple Sentence
- •A composite sentence
- •A Compound Sentence
- •I. The General Notion of a Complex Sentence.
- •2. The Status of the Subordinate Clause.
- •3.1. Classifications of Subordinate Clauses.
- •3.2. Types of Subordinate Clauses.
- •4. Connections between the Principal and the Subordinate Clause.
- •5. Neutralization between Subordination and Coordination.
- •6. The Character of the Subordinating Conjunction
- •7. Levels of Subordination
- •Syntactic Processes in the Complex Sentence.
- •9. Communicative Dynamism within a Composite Sentence( Compound and Complex) and a Supra-phrasal Unit.
Genitive Constructions (n’s n)
There are a number of genitive constructions in English which are classified according to different criteria: 1. dependence {Dependent and Independent (Absolute) Genitive ( a student’s answer, This student’s was the best answer); 2. the number of the constituents ( a single word Genitive: a boy’s bike, a double Genitive( my father’s friend’s pipe), a triple Genitive( my brother’s friend’s bride’s hat), a group Genitive( Prince of Denmark’s tragedy); 3. semantic relations between N’s and N: there are semantic varieties of dependent Genitives which are revealed transformationally and can be interpreted by means of componential method : a possessive Genitive( my son’s bike => my son has a bike), an agentive (subjective) Genitive( the boy’s application => the boy applied), an objective Genitive( the boy’s expulsion => the boy was expelled), an ambiguous Genitive (the writer’s invitation => the writer invites somebody (a subjective Genitive), => somebody invited the writer (an objective Genitive), the Genitive of origin( the girl’s story => the story told by the girl), descriptive Genitive (a mother’s love , a dog’s devotedness), Genitive of destination (the children’s room, the women’s magazine), Genitive of extension (a day’s work), temporal Genitive( a minute’s success, etc.).
All these synthetic Genitives can be replaced by analytical Genitives as there is semantic and structural similarity between the two ( France’s wines = the wines of France. It is the genitive of source). Analytical Genitive can be as ambiguous as a synthetic one ( the soldier’s shooting = the shooting of the soldiers =>the soldier shot or the soldier was shot). We can distinguish the same varieties of analytical Genitive as they are equal and can be encountered in the same environment (the Genitive of measure: the absence of two days= two days’ absence).
As to an Absolute Genitive, it is used independently. It is structurally and functionally diverse. Most frequent is the anaphorical Genitive which is used instead of a noun and represents the noun previously used to avoid its repetition. In a sentence it can perform the functions of a direct object, an attribute, a predicative, a detached element of a sentence (Render to Caesar those things which are Caesar’s and render to God those things which are God’s). The cataphorical Genitive anticipates a noun which is to come(John’s married the woman her father had loved).
The partitive (разделительный) Genitive( an opera of Verdi's => one of Verdi's operas). The locative Genitive( I met him at my aunt’s => at my aunt’s place).
Syntagmatically the absolute Genitive structure this N of N’s can express negative or positive evaluation (How naive was that picture of Dirk Stroeve’s. There was a silence threatened for a moment by that laughter of Giovanni’s. So your wife is a great friend of Mr Bossini’s).
Traditionally inanimate nouns are apt not to be used in the Genitive case , but in poetry and artistic texts there are no limitations to any noun being used in the Genitive, which is a marker of personification ( a variety of metaphor). Personification is a trope. Its effect consists in imparting the property of animate things to inanimate objects ( the ocean’s wave; reason’s voice; twilight’s silence, etc. Soldiers are citizens of death’s grey land).
At present in media (newspapers and magazines) of various circulation and orientation we encounter the spreading tendency to use any noun in the Genitive(the room’s silence; his book’s success, etc.) In this case nothing is personified. The Genitive loses its meaning of possession and acquires a qualifying function.
The morpheme -‘s comes to be lexicalized and turns into a derivational element, a suffix which changes the meaning of the word it is attached to (St Paul’s looks like a giant ship in the darkness = St Paul’s Cathedral. In an electrician’s he acquired a 9 volt transistor battery, in a stationer’s he was supplied with paper).