TOPIC 16: EXPRESSION OF POSSESSION

1. INTRODUCTION
2. THE GENITIVE CASE OR THE POSSESSIVE CASE
2.1. The notion of Case in English
2.2. Historical Antecedents of the Expression of Possession
2.3. Main Syntactic Structures to express Possession
2.3.1. Other Syntactic Structures
2.3.1.1. The Genitive with Ellipsis
3.2.1.2. The Double Genitive
2.3.1.3. The Group Genitive
2.3.1.4. Idiomatic Expressions
2.4. Inflectional Formation and Pronunciation
2.5. Semantic Relationships
2.6. Syntactic Functions
3. OTHER WAYS OF EXPRESSING POSSESSION
3.1. Possessive Pronouns
3.2. Verbs denoting possession
4. CONCLUSION
5. BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. INTRODUCTION
In English the term ‘possession’ is intended to answer to such questions as ‘ Whose is this? ’, ‘ What do you
possess? ’ and ‘ What are your personal possessions?’ so as to indicate ‘ownership’ or ‘something possessed’, as the
things someone or something ‘possesses’, that is, possessions, property, state ( such as land, buildings, a business),
personal effects or belongings (movable possessions: a video game, a mobile phone), family relationships (my
mother’s cousin ) and abstract relationships (Jim’s patience is amazing ).
Actually, the idea of ‘possession’ is defined as ‘the fact and action of having or possessing something’, which
may be either physical, referring to people (a brother, two sisters), animals (a dog, five horses) and things (money, a
nice house); or abstract (greed, soul). This idea of possession is world widespread since all languages express it
though in different ways, for instance, using of- phrase structures and adding the genitive case ending ‘s in English
and the use of preposition ‘ de’ in Spanish.
Moreover, the notion of possession is, psychologically speaking, one of the most primitive instincts of
human beings and, therefore, historically present in many events, as for instance, the biblical case of Salomon, the
third Hebrew king (970-931 BC) when deciding, on two mothers who claimed for the same baby as their son, who
the baby belonged to; the longing for possessing new territories in America by Cristobal Columbus in 1492; or more
recently, the buying of our personal belongings nowadays.
 Possession is mainly expressed in English by means of the genitive case, which presents two variants: the -s
genitive (also called ‘saxon genitive’) and the of-genitive (or of-phrase structure), which work at the level of the
grammatical category of nouns since the notion of possession namely implies the mention of people, things and
animals. Moreover, there are o ther lexically specific grammatical categories involved, such as possessive pronouns,
possessive adjectives, verbs and prepositions as well as other specific idiomatic expressions and phrase structures in
order to convey the meaning of ‘ownership’.
2. THE GENITIVE CASE OR THE POSSESSIVE CASE
2.1. The Notion of Case in English
As in Latin, so in English "case" refers to a change in the form of a word which indicates how that word is
used in a sentence, that is, how it relates syntactically to other words in the sentence. Thus, the grammatical case of a
noun or pronoun reveals its grammatical function within the sentence. I am defining the existence of a "case system"
as the occurrence of different forms of a given noun, depending on the role of the noun in a sentence. A case system
exists when inflectional affixes are used to mark distinctions in syntactic role. The term "case" is also used in some
modern linguistic literature just to point out the relationships between nouns and . other parts of the sentence,
regardless of whether they are overtly marked.

There are only three cases in modern English, they are subjective (he), objective (him) and possessive (his).
They may seem more familiar in their old English form – nominative, accusative and genitive. When a noun or a
pronoun works as a subject in the sentence, a subjective case appears (e.g. Louis works in the management); when a
noun or a pronoun works as an object in the sentence, an objective case appears (He loves pizza); and finally,
possessive cases indicate a relationship of possession or belongingness between two nouns or a noun and a pronoun
(Robin’s house is near the river). There is another kind of case. It is called the vocative case. This case is similar to
the subjective case in term of spelling. The vocative case indicates a person being addressed directly by his/her
name. This name is separated by a comma (Robert, could you please open the door?).

By a standard definition, a language with a case system marks case by inflection. Inflections are morphemes
that do not create new words but rather indicate the grammatical status of existing words. The statuses indicated
differ from language to language, but typical across languages are such qualities as number, tense, definiteness,
animateness, possession, size, and shape (Bolinger, 57), as well as role in a sentence. All languages have
mechanisms to distinguish cases in one way or another. However, we only say that a language has cases when words
are declined, for instance, when they change their form to reflect their case. In this sense, as we shall see, English
got rid of most cases, and as a result, English is easier than many other languages because nouns and some indefinite
pronouns (anyone, someone, everyone, and so on) only have a distinctive case form for the possessive. There are a
few remnants of old English though, and pronouns have distinctive forms in all three cases and should be used with
a bit more care.
Cases are related to thematic roles such as agent and patient. Nevertheless, we must not confuse those two concepts
that, though related, are not equivalent. In fact, cases are a syntactic notion, whereas thematic roles are a semantic
one.

2.2. Historical Antecedents of the Expression of Possession

The history of English is traditionally divided into three eras for convenience of study: Old English; Middle
English; and Modern English. Old English (c. 450-1150) has been called the ·period of "full inflections,"18 Middle
English (c. 1150-1550), the period of "leveled inflections," and Modern English (c. 1550-today), the period of "lost
inflections" (Krapp, 62). For various reasons, the language which has been called English for the past 1500 years has
undergone some major morphological and syntactic changes that other Germanic languages have not. Apparently,
English has been the extreme in some developmental trends applying to the Germanic languages. Very early in its
history, English shifted from being a highly inflected language to one with very few inflectional endings. This is
generally recognized as the cause of the loss of a case system in English. Case relationships in modern English are
for the most part indicated by means other than noun case inflection.
In O.E. the genitive was used much as e.g. in German and Latin, since it was an inflectional language. The
Saxon Genitive is the oldest in the English language. In OE, the ending of the singular genitive was -es and the
ending of the plural genitive was -as. Later, when the final syllable weakened, the a and the e were missed,
becoming -s, being the vowels substituted by the apostrophe. The OE -es was extended then to most nouns. It has
had an unusual historical development because it has broken off from the nouns to which it was originally added and
moved up to the level of phrases, where it functions syntactically like a word.
Therefore, with the decay of inflectional endings which took place in Middle English, the ending "'s" is the
only one that has survived into Modern English, and this has been supplemented by a new construction consisting of
the preposition "OF" followed by the uninflected form of the noun. The periphrastic genitive or of-genitive appears
in the 12th cent, under the influence of the Normans, but it already existed in OE. The "of-genitive" was used with
all kinds of nouns both in Old and Middle English, eg: the table's leg, the King's daughter of France. Altenberg
(1982:13) states that the process went to the point where the genitive singular was close to extinction. However, this
did not happen since the two forms were divided in function; the inflected genitive acted as a premodifier, while the
of-construction acted as a postmodifier. Still, this division of functions did not become solid but, in spite of the
attraction towards different functions, the variants retained flexibility in functions. This was the case during the
Middle English period, and, evidently, it still is today.
By the end of the ME period -es had been extended to practically all nouns as agentive singular and caseless
plural suffix. As a result, most nouns had only two forms (sister, sisters). The use of the apostrophe to distinguish
the written forms of the genitive singular (sister’s) and plural (sisters’) was not widely adopted until the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries.
In Early Modern English, the orthographic practice developed of marking the genitive case by inserting the
word “his” between the possessor noun, especially where it ended in -s, and the following possessed noun, as in
“Augustus his daughter”. The term "his genitive" may refer either to marking genitives with "his" as a reflexive or
intensifying marker or, much more precisely, the practice of using "his" instead of an -s. Therefore, use of the "his"
genitive in writing occurred throughout later Middle English and early Modern English as an intensifier, but as a
replacement marker only for a brief time. Around 1680, the "his" genitive began to disappear, in contrast to the "-s"
genitive. Before that period, both "his" and -s genitives occur in the writings of the same author, although the -s
genitive is always dominant, except with men's names. Essentially, this meant writing, or saying, "Ned his house"
instead of "Neds house." The "his" genitive as a hypercorrection had a brief literary existence, whatever its
prevalence in spoken English. Having only appeared around 1580, it was exceptionally rare by 1700.
2.3. Main Syntactic Structures to Express Possession
As we have said, the genitive case in English has two different realizations: the Saxon Genitive or the inflected
form from OE (Amanda’s suitcase) or the periphrastic form with ‘of’ from French (the floor of the house). There
are usually compelling reasons for preferring one or another construction in a given case, and numerous
environments in which only one construction is grammatically acceptable.
According to Quirk, the most important feature which determines the choice of one form or another is the personal
quality of the modifying noun. His classification states:
Inflectional form:
• Personal names/nouns: Hilda’s notebook **
• Larger animals: The elephant’s mouth.
• Collective nouns: The government’s predictions **
• Temporal nouns: Today’s meeting.
• Geographical names: Spain’s socialist party.
• Nouns related to human activity: My life’s aim.
• Set phrases: For Heaven’s sake.
Periphrastic form:
• Inanimate things: The door of the castle.
• Location expressions: The bottom of the pyramid.
• Partitives: A slice of cherry pie.
• Long possessors: The lipstick of the woman in red.
• Characteristics of a person: A child of huge potential.
• Container / content relationship: A glass of wine.
• Adjectives used substantively: Lifestyles of the rich.
Both the inflectional form and the periphrastic form can be used with nouns denoting measures and values: The edge
of the forest / The forest’s edge.
Nevertheless, this classification is not so straightforward. As we have mentioned before, personal nouns and names
prefer the inflected form. However, the ‘of construction’ is also acceptable when we want to emphasize the
headword (‘Virginia Woolf’s novels’ or ‘The novels of Virginia Woolf’).
In the case of collective nouns, when we want to emphasize the personal opinion of the persons in question, we
usually use the inflected form (The Bush’s Administration proposals), however, when this connotation of
individuals is not present, the of-construction is more common (‘The policy of the Government’).
Finally, another factor which may influence on their optional use is the information focus, where the –s enables us to
give end-focus to one noun and the of -genitive to another. Compare: ‘ the girls’ success’ vs. ‘the success of the girls’
2.3.1. Other Syntactic Structures
Having examined the two main syntactic structures to express possession in English, we must examine as well other
syntactic structures which, although not so outstanding like the preceding ones, are equally relevant when expressing
‘ownership’ because of their own particular way of construction. For instance, the ellipsis of the genitive case, which
is commonly known as the independent genitive; the double genitive construction, also called post-genitive; the
group genitive; and finally, everyday idiomatic expressions, among which we highlight expressions related to money
and measurements.
2.3.1.1. The Genitive with Ellipsis
First, the genitive with ellipsis, called later on ‘the independent genitive’ by Greenbaum & Quirk (1990)
deals with cases in which the noun that is modified by the –s genitive, may be omitted if the context makes its
identity clear. We may distinguish two cases: first, the ellipsis of the noun when its reference is contextually clear
and, second, when the unexpressed item refers to homes or businesses, usually known as ‘local genitive’.
First of all, regarding those cases in which it is common to ellipt the noun following the genitive, we find
examples with the possessive genitive, for instance, ‘He has a car like John’s (than John’s car) or Cristine’s is the
only face I know here (Cristine’s face); and also, by contrast, with the of- construction in similar contexts, where a
pronoun is normally necessary. For instance, the pronouns ‘that’ or ‘those’ usually replace the corresponding items in
the following examples: ‘The population of New York is greater than that of Chicago’ and ‘The cars of Italy are
more expensive than those of Greece’.
Secondly, ellipsis is especially noteworthy in the ‘local genitive’, that is, expressions relating to homes,
businesses and establishments. For instance, ‘ You can find me at Tom’s tonight ’ (where Tom lives); ‘When we
arrived at Spike’s, a new jazz group was playing ’ (a well-known pub); ‘Anne went to the dentist’s this afternoon’
(the dentist’s professional establishment). Note that when referring to ‘local genitives’, one could not specify
uniquely the unexpressed item because it would sound artificial in a fuller phrase (i.e. My baker’s shop stays open
late on Mondays).
Moreover, the same applies to proper names where these refer to commercial firms. This usage is normal in
relation to small ‘one-man’ businesses (i.e. I buy fresh fruit at Smith’s everyday). However, when we deal with the
names of major firms, what begins as a local genitive develops into a plural, often so spelled and observing plural
concord (i.e. Harrod’s is a famous department store=Harrods is having a lot of sales). Furthermore, conflict between
plurality and the idea of a business as a collective unity results in variation in concord (i.e. Harrods is/are quite good
on sales).
3.2.1.2. The Double Genitive
 The double genitive, also known as the post-genitive (Greenbaum & Quirk, 1990), refers to an of- phrase
which can be combined with an – s genitive construction (i.e. One of my best friend’s sisters). Since the – s genitive
has a determiner role, this must be definite and personal (i.e. An opera of Verdi’s BUT NOT: an opera of a
violinist’s).
It is worth mentioning that there are two main conditions which also affect the noun preceding the of -
phrase. Thus, first, it cannot be a proper noun (i.e. NOT: Mrs White’s Mary or Mary of Mrs Browns); and second,
this noun must have indefinite reference, that is, it must be seen as one of an unspecified number of items attributed
to the postmodifier (i.e. A friend of the doctor’s has arrived BUT NOT: the daughter of the doctor’s has arrived ).
The double genitive thus involves a partitive as one of its main components, as in ‘one of the doctor’s
friends), which implies that he has more than one. Yet we are able, in apparent defiance of this statement, to use
demonstratives as follows (i.e. that friend of mine; this song of U2).
2.3.1.3. The Group Genitive
According to Quirk & Greenbaum (1973), the group genitive refers to those cases in which, in some
postmodified noun phrases it is possible to use an –s genitive by affixing the inflection to the final part of the
postmodification rather than to the head of the noun itself. Thus, ‘the teacher’s book’ vs. ‘the teacher of History’s
book’. Hence, the noun phrase is constituted by premodifier (the teacher of History) + ‘s + the head (book).
This group genitive is regularly used with such postmodifications as in ‘someone else’s car, the lawyer
apparent’s life’ as well as prepositional phrases (i.e. after a two days’ journey). Other examples involve
coordinations, as in ‘ an hour and a half’s discussion, a week or so’s sunshine’. Note that the group genitive is not
normally acceptable following a clause due to syntactic reasons, though in colloquial use one sometimes hears
examples like ‘ A man I know’s son has just won the lotto’, ‘that old man what-do-you-call-him’s house has been
sold’. Finally, remember that in normal use, and writing in particular, -s genitives are replaced by of -genitives (i.e.
The son of a man I know has just won the lotto).
2.3.1.4. Idiomatic Expressions
Finally, idiomatic expressions mainly involve those referring to money, time and measurements. Thus, we
find expressions of money + worth (i.e. three pounds’ worth of ice-cream, five euros’ worth of stamps); time (i.e. a
week’s holiday, in two years’ time, today’s paper, ten minutes’ break, tomorrow’s weather, two hours’ delay); and
specific expressions of measurement, such spatial reference, distance, weight, etc. For instance, ‘a month’s rest, ten
minutes’ walk, two day’s journey, at a stone’s throw’, the journey’s end, the water’s edge , and so on.
Moreover, we also find some expressions related to everyday life and poetry by means of nouns, verbs and
specific constructions, as we mentioned at the beginning of the study. For instance, ‘I know the owner of this old
house’, ‘the children have made the house of their own today’, ‘She has nothing she can call her own’ , ‘This room is
for my brother’s own use’, ‘they numbered a collection of diamonds among his possessions’ , ‘ for heaven’s sake’
and ‘for goodness’ sake’; and possessive of -phrase constructions, such as ‘a friend of mine’.
2.4. Inflectional Formation and Pronunciation
The Saxon genitive is formed as follows:
1. Singular nouns and plural nouns not ending en ‘s’ add apostrophe + s (`s): Men`s health.
 2. A single apostrophe (`) is used with plural nouns ending in ‘s (Teacher’s duty). Also, classical names ending
in “s” usually add only the apostrophe (e.g. Sophocles’ plays). Other names ending in “s” can take -s or the
apostrophe alone (e.g. Dickens’s novels / Dickens’ novels).
3. In the case of compounds, the last word takes the “-’s” (e.g. Their son-in-law’s car).
4. Names consisting of several words are treated similarly (e.g. The King of Spain’s daughter).
5. “-’s” can also be used after acronyms (e.g. The AG’s office spokesman).
6. When we have two nouns, it depends on whether they function as groupal owners (Tom and Mary’s
children) or as independent owners (Tom’s and Mary’s children).
Regarding its pronunciation, the ‘s inflection is:
a) Pronounced /iz/ after bases ending in voiced or voiceless sibilants: horse's, George's…
b) Pronounced /z/ and spelled -s after bases ending in other voiced sounds: dog's, John's…
c) Pronounced /s/ and spelled -s after bases ending in other voiceless sounds: cat's, Ruth's...
2.5. Semantic Relationships
The genitive case is different from other cases in that it often signals some kind of connection between
nouns, without need of a verb (Prokosch, 230). Still, the connection which may be signaled is not only of one kind.
The genitive is often referred to as the "possessive," but this is an inadequate title. In modem English, there is a great
amount of possible semantic relationships expressed by the genitive. We will consider the most frequent ones:
1. Possessive genitive: the "central" but far from the only use of the genitive is to express possession. If the
headword denotes an object, the genitive may denote the possessor: My uncle's car, Mrs Johnson's passport. One of
its main features is that it is normally placed in often paraphrased with the verbs ‘have’, ‘own’, and so on. For
instance, Jane’s summer house (Jane owns a summer house), my sister’s mobile (my sister has a mobile); also, we
find of -phrase structures, as in the chimney of my house (my house has a chimney).
2. Subjective genitive: if the headword denotes an action, the genitive may denote the agent: the new member's
maiden speech, his parents' consent. The subjective genitive has a specific syntactic structure, where the noun of the
genitive is actually the subject and is often paraphrased in predicative position with intransitive verbs. For instance,
the boy’s application form (the boy applied), the economy’s unexpected increase (the economy increased
unexpectedly), the leaves’ fall (the leaves fell down), the girl’s screams (the girl screamed); and also, note the use in
of -phrase constructions, as in the rise of the sun (the sun rose).
3. Objective genitive: if the genitive indicated the object or receirver of the action: Caesar's murderers, the family's
support. The objective genitive also has a particular syntactic structure, where the noun of the genitive is actually the
object of the sentence and, unlike the subjective genitive, is often paraphrased in predicative position with transitive
verbs. For instance, the friends’s support (someone supports the friends), the criminal’s release from prison
(someone released the criminal from prison); and also, note the use in of -phrases, as in a report of the news
(someone reported the news).
4. Descriptive genitive: The descriptive genitive involves, as its name indicates, a description of the noun following
the genitive, and therefore, it is often paraphrased with modifiers, that is, appositive clauses or prepositions. For
instance, attributive clauses are used on paraphrasing in a lawyer’s job (the job is as a lawyer), a doctor’s degree (the
degree is a doctorate), children’s sport clothes (sport clothes are especially designed for children), and also,
prepositions are used in a women’s college (a college for women) and a winter’s day (a day in winter).
5. Partitive genitive: The partitive genitive is usually expressed by the of -construction since it is far from denoting
literal possession (expressed by the possessive genitive) and can be also paraphrased by transitive verbs. As its name
indicates, this type of genitive denotes partition as ‘parts of a whole’, where the noun preceding the genitive
indicates the whole part and the noun after it indicates the specific part of the division (i.e. the brain’s two
hemispheres ).
In those cases where both genitive and of -phrases are grammatically possible, the choice often turns on the
syntactic field addressing the principle of end-focus or end-weight. Thus, observe the following examples, an
absence of three years/a three years’ absence (the absence lasted three years), part of the inheritance (the inheritance
is divisible into parts).
6. Genitive of measure: The genitive of measure usually overlaps with the partitive genitive since they share similar
characteristics. Thus, also expressed by the of-construction, the genitive of measure can be also paraphrased by
transitive verbs. As its name indicates, this type of genitive indicates measure regarding time, height, weight,
distance, value, etc, as in the height of the tower (the tower is of a certain height), the length of the river (the river is
of a certain length). Note that it also denotes partition as ‘parts of a whole’ on specifying part of a division, as in a
fraction of a second (a second is divided into parts), the parts of a day (a day is divided into parts), and so on.
Again, in those cases where both genitive and of -phrases are grammatically possible, the choice often turns
on the syntactic field addressing the principle of end-focus or end-weight. Thus, observe the following examples, a
delay of five hours vs. a five hours delay (the delay lasted five hours).
7. Genitive of origin: The genitive of origin , as its names indicates, addresses directly to the origin or source of the
noun preceding the genitive, as in your grandmother’s letter, Italy’s pizza,, England’s cheeses, the boys’ story, and so
on. As we can observe, the description of the noun preceding the genitive ( your grandmother ’s letter/Italy’s
pizza/etc) is often paraphrased with modifiers, in predicative clauses (the letter has been sent by your grandmother
/the pizza has its origins in Italy /etc ) or with prepositions ( the letter from your grandmother /the pizza from Italy
/etc ). Note that the same is applied to the of -constructions (i.e. the wines of France=France produced the wines ).
As is obvious from these examples, genitive relationships are often difficult to classify and might have multiple
interpretations: in Mary's photo, Mary may own the photo, have created the photo, or be the subject of the photo.

2.6. Syntactic Functions

Although the genitive is generally discussed as a case of nouns, in some respects it is better to regard it as an ending
belonging to noun phrases rather than of nouns.
The English genitive may have two main functions:
1. Attributive: when the genitive precedes a headword to which it is grammatically subordinated (eg, it is my
mother's hat, at a yard's distance). Combinations of an attributive genitive plus headword fall into two groups: the
specifying genitive and the classifying genitive.
 • The specifying genitive: the noun in the genitive refers to a particular or specific person or thing and
functions syntactically as a determiner: my mother's picture, the doctor's car, England's greatness.
• The classifying genitive: typically enters into fixed combinations with the noun to which it refers (Devil’s
advocate)
2. Independent genitive: a construction in which the headword is not expressed, though it may be explicit or
implicit in the context (e.g. my car is faster than John’s, at the butcher’s). We can find three special uses of this:
• Semi-independent genitive or elliptical genitive: the headword is absent because it appears in the nearby
context, either before or after the noun in the genitive (e.g. I left my luggage with Anna’s)

• Post-genitive or Double Genitive: It is a phrasal construction in which possession is indicated by the word
“of” followed by the possessive form of a noun or pronoun (A friend of my niece’s)

• Local genitive: In this kind of construction the omitted head cannot be reconstructed from the preceding or
following context, but has to be regarded as culturally given (See you at my sister’s)

3. OTHER WAYS OF EXPRESSING POSSESSION

3.1. Possessive Pronouns
English personal pronouns are said to have three morphological cases: subjective, objective and possessive.
A possessive case (such as my/mine, your/yours, etc) functions as a grammatical possessor. The possessive case
typically has both a determiner form (such as ‘my’, ‘your’) and a distinct independent form (such as ‘mine’, ‘ours’).
Some grammarians make a distinction between possessive adjectives and possessive pronouns. First of all, the main
difference between both categories is to be found in the grammatical function they perform at the sentence level.
Thus, whereas possessive adjectives function as determiners of nouns, possessive pronouns function as substitutes of
nouns, that is, they substitute a whole noun- phrase and keeps the same meaning with similar form (i.e. This is my
book vs. This book is mine).
Possessive pronouns, as such, are to be found in the general classification of pronouns: possessive,
demonstrative, personal, reflexive, interrogative and relative pronouns. As a general rule, possessive pronouns are:
mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, yours, theirs and we can observe the outstanding similarity with possessive
adjectives, since some of them add a final –s to the base form. As for possessive adjectives, they agree with the
‘possessor’ but not with the person or thing ‘possessed’, that is, they agree in number and person with the possessor
but not with the thing possessed (i.e. This is Jane’s hat=This hat is hers).
Hence, we find in English three forms for the third person singular: his (masculine reference), hers (feminine
reference) and its (animal or thing reference) whereas the rest of possessive pronouns are invariable for
masculine/feminine or singular/plural (i.e. our house=ours ). Note that the form ‘yours’ is also used both for the
second person singular and the second person plural.
3.2. Verbs denoting possession

The idea of possession can be expressed in a very direct way by means of the intransitive verb belong and the
transitive ones possess, own or simply have or have got.
She owns a very large property in the countryside
I have some good news
That pen belongs to her
That dog has got very sharp teeth
Among these verbs, we find the verb to have, which is a bit particular. This verb may adopt two differen
constructions: it may either function as any other regular verb (taking the auxiliary in the negative and interrogative
forms), or it may occur on its own. In this case, it will usually adopt the form ‘have got’ and will not need to be
escorted by any auxiliary verb. In colloquial language, the form “have” and the pronoun are usually omitted,
especially in questions with you (e.g. Got any money?).
The difference between have and have got is very slight in Modern British English. But when such
difference exists, it is that ‘have got’ is used to talk about a more temporary situation than have: You have got dirty
shoes (at this moment) vs. You have dirty shoes (this person always has dirty shoes). Besides, ‘have’ is used for
actions (I usually have breakfast at 8 vs. *I usually have got breakfast at 8 a.m.). Other difference is that ‘have got’ is
only used in the present simple, whereas ‘have’ can be used for the past and future forms (She had a copy of that
book). Finally, there is no contracted form for ‘have’ (I’ve got a red bicycle but not I’ve a red bicycle).
4. CONCLUSION
The main issue of this study, how to express possession in English, proves relevant to the learning of a
foreign language since differences between the vocabulary of the learner's native language (L1) and that of the
foreign language (L2) may lead to several problems, such as the incorrect use of possession expressions, especially
because of the syntactic, morphological, phonological and semantic processes implied in these categories.
This study has looked at the expression of possession within lexical semantics, morphology, phonology and
syntax in order to establish a relative similarity between the two languages that Spanish-speaking students would
find it useful for learning English if these connections were brought to their attention, especially when different
structures may overlap, for instance, of -phrase constructions and possessiv e genitive (i.e. the name of the dog/the
dog’s name).
According to Thomson & Martinet (1986), a European student (for our purposes a Spanish student) may find
especially troublesome the use of these two structures, and in particular that of the saxon genitive structure since,
when communicating in English, first, he has to know in which construction the saxon genitive is required or not
and, second, which construction to use when a certain possessive relationship is presented (i.e. people, things,
places, etc).
This choice becomes problematic for our Spanish students when they try to find in his own language a
certain construction similar to the English one with the saxon genitive structure. For instance, the most common
mistake for Spanish students, both at ESO and Bachillerato level, with a sentence like La casa de Sarah, is to express
possession as in Spanish, by means of the preposition ‘of’ = ‘de’ (i.e. NOT: The Sarah’s house/The house of Sarah )
and, often, it does not correspond literally to the translation the students make. However, since there is certain
similarity with of - phrases, students find it easier with this type of construction.
 In the Spanish curriculum, the expression of possession is envisaged from earlier stages of ESO in terms of
grammar (possessive adjectives and pronouns, interrogative pronouns related to possession: whose), phonology
(pronunciation of saxon genitive ‘s), morphology (when adding apostrophe and ‘s), simple descriptions of
possession relationships, written or oral, related to family (i.e. my mother’s sister is my aunt), personal items (i.e.
This is Antonio’s mobile/This is Antonio’s) and everyday events (i.e. It is Charles’s birthday). At the higher stages of
Bachillerato, we move towards more complex descriptions of possession and a more accurate use of it, addressing
not only to the two main structures (possessive genitive and of-phrase) but also to other syntactic structures such as
the group genitive (i.e. This is one of Martin’s sisters), ellipsis of genitive marker (i.e. Your skirt is like Maria’s ),
and idiomatic expressions (i.e. two hours’ delay, in ten days’ time).
The expression of possession has been considered a relevant element of any language teaching curriculum
because of its high-frequency in speech. We must not forget that the expression of possession, drawn by a wide
range of grammatical categories (nouns, adjectives, verbs, prepositions, etc) is constantly present in our everyday
lives and, therefore, in our students’ as well. For instance, note its presence in clothes trade marks (i.e. Levis’,
Burberry’s, Pepe’s), shops (i.e. Toys’r’us, Harrods’), fast food restaurants (i.e. McDonald’s, Paco’s pizza, etc ), and
so on.
Hence, the importance of how to handle these expressions cannot be understated since students must
distinguish what type of relationship is to be established in order to use the appropriate structure or grammar
category. For instance, if we are dealing with ‘people’, the saxon genitive proves relevant (i.e. Markus’ car) and
when using possessive adjectives or pronouns, they must take into account the differences in gender in the third
person singular (masculine, feminine, neuter) as in ‘This is Markus’ car. It’s his car. His car is his’. However,
learners cannot do it all on their own. Language learners, even 2nd year Bachillerato students, do not automatically
recognize differences which seem obvious to teachers, and need to have these associations brought to their attention.
5. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Quirk, R. & Greenbaum, S. 1973. A University Grammar of English. London: Longman.
Quirk, R. et al. 1985. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman
Baugh, A. & Cable, T. 1993. A History of the English Language . Prentice-Hall Editions.
Thomson, A.J. and A.V. Martinet. 1986. A Practical English Grammar. Oxford University Press.
Huddleston, R. and G.K. Pullum. 2002. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge University
Press.