Table of contents

Subject page
Acknowledgments iii
Abstract iv
Table of Contents V
List of Table Vii
Section one 1
1.1. Introduction 1
1.2. problem 3
1.3. Research question 3
1.4. The value of the study 4
1.5. proceduers of the study 4
1.6. Limits of the study 4
Swction Two 5
2.1. Introduction 5
2.2. Definition of genitive case 5
2.3. construction of genitive case 7
2.3.1. Morphological construction of genitive case 7
2.3.2. Semantic construction of genitive case 11
2.4. Subjective Genitive 12
2.5.Objective Genitive 13
2.6. Summary 15
Section Three 16
3.1. Intruduction 16
3.2. Possesive form of Noun 17
3.3. Genitive of pronoun 20
3.4. Genitive of Adjective 21
3.5. Summary 22
Section Four 23
Conclusions 23
Bibliography 24
 List of Table
Table Page
Genitive with (S) in spoken and written forms 8
Section one

1.1. Introduction

English is one of the most commonly spoken and written languages in the
world right now. It is the primary language in more than in 71 countries, including
major world powers, such as America and the UK, and it taught as a second
language in many other countries because of it’s value as a tool for
communication.

Grammar is essential of language building, it is basically need by everybody

speak or write in English. In English grammar, gentive case (possessive) is one of
many grammatical categories which is important to be learnt and mastered by
students in order to write and speak English correctly. Genitive case is one of the
forms taken by a noun phrase (often a single noun or pronoun) in language, which
express grammartical relation ships by means of lections.
In genitive case, the student suffer from how to case it correctly, they have a
problem in using the a postrophe and possession in correct way especially in
writing and they do mistakes with the (s) plural.

The main problem that this study tries to solve the students confussion when
they use possessive. It also tries to provide them with a rich background about this
prominent subject.

The study also tries to focus on the way we use possessive in writing by
clearifyiug the position of a postrophe and the pronouns. I try to make all these
solutions clear and useful by including many examples and situations of everyday
speech.
1.2. Problem

The past studies in Genitive case showed that the students have problems in using
the a postrophe in the right place. The teachers noticed that their students do
mistakes when they put the a postrophe sometimes before and after (s) possessive.

However, two problems arised in the current study and noticed by teachers,
these problems are:
1. Students at many different stage are facing difficulties in differentiating between
(s) plaral and possessive.
2. The students also faced problems about the correct position of a postrophe. The
feeling confuses when they write the a postrophe either before or after (s).

1.3 Research questions

1. What is the correct usage of possessive?

2. What are the forms of genitive case or possessive?
1.4 The value of the study

The present study is helped to be significant for both students and English
teacher a like. This research sheds light on the important uses of genitive or
possessive in spoken and written language. This paper makes this area clear by
explaining who is the genitive constructed and expressed in English language. This
study is also value for the textbook designers because it shifts the important of
genitive and the problems that faced by the students in using genitive, so it will
open now horizons to deal with genitive and language communication.

1.5 Precedures of the study

The current paper has followed these steps in order to achieve the aims of the
study:

1. Presenting a sufficient in formation about genitive or possessive, its defintions,

the constructed of genitive and different types of genitive in English language.

2. Presenting the forms of genitive, the correct usage of a postrohe with different
parts of speech such as nouns, pronouns and adjectives

3. Examples and explanations were provided in order to make it very clear and
easy

4. Summary for each section was presenting and also conclusion was finally
written to conclude this study.

1.6 limited of the study

 This present paper is limited to genitive case in English language. The
genitive construction, its types and forms.
Section Two

2.1 Introduction

The section two of this study provided some definition of genitive case and
explained the construction through many cases. Many of genitive types are
founded, but this paper focus on some types that construction, genitive.
Morphological, semantics, subjective, objective and descriptive will be discussed
in this section.

2.2 Difinition of Genitive Case

Crystal (2008:2010) explained the genitive as on of the forms taken by a noun

phrase (often a single noun or prnoun) in language which express grammatical
relation ships by means of lections.

The genitive typically expresses a possessive relation ship (e.g. the boy’s
book) or some other similarly ‘close’ connection (e.g. a summer’s day), but there is
a great deal of variation between language in the way this case is used. The
termmay also apply to constructions formally related to the case form, as in the
‘post modifying’ genitive with of in English. e.g. the car of the general (⇒ the
general’s car).

As for Hurford (1994:85), he say’s: As with possessive generally, the term

‘genitive’ should not be identified too closely with ideas of owner ship or actual
possessive or belonging. The genitive case signals a structural grammatical relation
ship between the things referred to by the nouns may simply be some kind of loose
association.
2.3 Construction of Genitive Case

In English genitive constructed by many types all these types indicated in

writing by two forms, either by apostrophe and suffix or by a apostrophe only. The
types of genitive, morphological, semantics, subjective, objective and descriptive
will explain there with examples in order to clarify what and how construct the
genitive case in English language.

2.3.1 Morphological Construction of Genitive Case

The genitive of regular nouns is realized in speech only in the singular, where
it takes one of the forms /IZ/, /Z/ or /S/ following the rules for the sinflection of
nouns and verbs. In writing, the inlection of regular nouns is realized in the
singular by apostrophes (boy’s), and in the regular plural by the apostrophe
following the plural-s (boy’s). As are sult, the spoken form/ spdIz/ my three forms
of the noun spy as follows:
e.g. (1)
The spies were arrested [plural, common case].
The syp’s companion was a woman [ singular, genitive case].
The spie’s companion were women [plural, genitive case].

Since the genitive adds nothing to aregular plural noun in speech, and nothing
except the final a postroph in writing, this plural genitive may be called zero
genitive.
 By contrast, some nouns with irregular plural like child preserve a number
distinction independently of the genitive singular and genitive plural distinction.
Child ⇒ Child’s ; Children ⇒ Children’s

With such irregular plurals shows, the some genitive ending (splled’s occurs with
both singular and plural nouns.
The following table explains those points.
Table 1
Genitive with (s) in spoken and written forms.

Regular-s plural irregular Plural

spoken singular Plural singular Plural
common /bDI/ /tsaild/ /’tsIldrdz
genitive /bDIZ/ /tsa:ldz/ /tsIldrdz/
writing singular Plural singular Plural
common boy boys child children
genitive boy’s boy’s child’s Children’s

Table 1 shows the using of (s) singular and plural in both regular and irregular
forms of genitive spoken and written point of views.

Burton Reports(1986:52) cosiders the genitive one of the distictive

morphological properties of nouns: “a morphological identifying feature of all
nouns is that they have a genitive or possessive form” this is also confirmed by
Haegeman and Gueron (1999:54): “Another property of nouns is that they can
often be assocoated with a genitive morpheme.”
 The inflected genitive on English is formed as follows

Eckersley (1960:45):

(i) For singular nouns, by adding-’s to the modifying noun.The usual ending for the
old English genitive singular was-es.When, later-the-e was omitted, its obsense
was shown by an apostrophe (ʼ)

(2) a- the girl’s dress

b- mose’s comandments
(ii) For plural nouns ending in-s, by adding apostrophe only:

(3) a- the teacher’s room

b- the office’s cars
(iii) For plural nouns not ending in-s, by adding’s:

(4) a- the children’s room.

b- the women’s cries.

Phonological, the’s has three allomorphs according to the sound at the end of
the preceding noun.
(Eckersely and Eckersley 1960:45)
/s/ with nouns ending in voiceless consonant (except) /s/, /S/ and /tS/. e.g. mark’s,
elephant’s, philip’s.
/Z/ with nouns ending in /s/, /Z/, /3/,/S/,/d3/ and /tS/, e.g. marx’s, George’s,
which’s.

Bolinger and sears (1981:240 ) explained that is it aprocess of assimilation

that is responsible for these choices.

Allomorphs too-those that are ‘Phonologically conditioned’ are mostly

traceable to assimilation-the plural ending in English (and the possessives of nouns
and third-person singular ending of verbs) -/s/ in cats but /z/ in dogs and toys retain
these features because of a assimilation to the preceding sound.
2.3.2 Semantic construction

The section discuss a semantic classification of genitive construction in

English language.

Ouirk (197 2:193 ) discuss the classes of genitive in English on the following
lines, anattempt will be made to explain the classes which are relevant to the
experiment which are the subjective and objective genitive.

Objective Genitive:

The boyʼs teacher the boy is tought by the teacher the apostrophe (s’) is added
to the noun reffering to the thing affected by the performer of the action.

e.g. (5)

The man’s killer was arrested

(cobuild:1990:104 )

According to this example, the apostrophe (‘s) which added to the word (mons) to
explain that the man affected by the action (killing)
2.4. Subjective Genitive

The modifying noun acts as the subject of the head noun. Bolinger and sears
(1981:67.8) explain this as follow. “Jill’s book uses the possessive morpheme’s to
discribe owhership, a fact of the real world. Jill’s smoking doesnot use it to say that
Jill is the grammatical subject of the verb smoke”. This is supported by Cobuild’s
(1990:104 ) who stated that “the possessive form can some times be used with
nouns which reffer to an action inorder to indicate who or what is performing the
action”. Periphrasstic genitives can also be used to show the subject. “prepositional
phrases beginning with of can be used with nouns reffering to an action to indicate
who or what is performing the action” e.g. (6)
a) the man’s arrival.

b) my agreement leaves.

c) the fall of auturn leaves.

What is noticable about these examples is that the head noun is a verbal noun
and the modifying noun acts as its subject.
Consider the following sentences:
- The boyʼs application ++ the boy applied for....

The possessive morpheme’s shows that the boy is the grammatical subject of
the verb ‘apply’ it does not show the ownership.
The boyʼs book.
The following possessive morpheme’s describes the status of owner ship. The boy
has the book.
2.5. Objecive Genitive

The modifying noun acts as the object of the head noun. Cobuild (1990:104 )
reveal that “some times you can add apostrophes (‘s) to anoun reffering to the
thing affected by the performer of an action and put it in front of the noun reffering
to that performer. Some times an apostrophes (‘s) structure can be used to indicate
the thing affected by an action. “prepositional phrases beginning with of can also
be employed to show who or what some does some thing to (ibid:130 ).e.g

(7) a- The boy’s teacher examiner.

b- The man’s killer murder.

c- The creator of the universe.

d- Mandela’s release.

e- Anon’s appointment as secretery General of the U.N.

f- The destruction of the town.

It can be observed that the head noun is an agent but it is a verbal noun.

What represents the objective construction in which the head noun is an active
particaple that resembles the imperfective verb in its indication to the present and
future and the modifying noun is its patient, as in e.g.(8)

“a- This is the writer of the letter.”

“b- This is our helper to do good.”
Both the subjective and objective functions of the genitive can be achieved by
genitive construction in which the head noun is averbl noun in English. So, the
important question that may arise here os how to distinguish between the
subjective and objective functions of the genitive in that case. Quirk et.al
(1972:888 ) answer that question “The objective relation can be expressed only
with the of -phrase, the subjective relation with eigher the of -phrase or the -s
genitive ... there can be no difficulty in interpreting the of - phrase as subjective,
but where it is a transitive or prepositional verb problems can a rise. To illustrate
(lla) is ambiguous because it can mean that some one shoots the soldier’s or the
soldier shoot some one.

b- the fascination of the man.

c- the tenant scrutiny.

2.6. Summary

Genitive case is constructed by different types of genitive such as

morphological genitive semantics subjective, objective and other types.

Genitive is a morphological property English noun. Nouns are often assoiated

with a genitive morpheme.

The English genitive morpheme has three allomorphs that are phonologically
conditioned thus, the morphological identifying feature of an nouns is that they
have a genitive or possessive form.

Quirk etal. (1985:321 ) declare that the meaning expressed by the genitive can
best be shown by sentential pr phrasal an alogues.
 Section Three

3.1. Introduction

This section discusses different aspects concerning genitive. Firstly it sheds light
on “possessive from of noun”. The noun possessive morpheme has been
investegated with reference to its phonological conditions. Many examples are
introduced to prove the matters that are discussed.

Genitive of adjective is presented with in this section with examples showing the
way they are used.

Genitive of pronoun is also dealt with in this section provided with examples.
The ambiguious areas of genitive are also refered to with in each branch of this
section.

Finally, the section ends with a summary.

3.2. Possessive form of noun
The noun Possessive morpheme {-s ps} has the same phonologically
conditioned allomorphs as the plural: /-s/, /-z/, and /-dz/, plus a zero allomorph as
students. The term Possessive isnot a sat is factory label for this morpheme
because a variety of different semantic relation ships can exist between the
Possessive noun and the one that follows. The following cases will illustrate.
Stageeberg (198 1:137 -138 )
1- Possession or belongingness John’s hat.
2- characterizeation or descrption a cowboy’s walk.
3- origin Raphael’s painting.
4- measure (time, value, place) an hour’s wait.
5- subjective of act John’s flight (John flew)
6- objective of act John’s punishment was deserved (some one punished John).

A noun Possessive is ambiguous when it expresses more than one of the above
relation ships at the same time e.g. “His son’s loss grieved him” has two meaning:
(1) He lost his son (object of underlying verb), and this grieved him; or (2) His son
(subject of underlying verb) lost some thing, pehaps a family heir loon, and this
grieved him.

Quirk (1972:192 -201 ) listed the following animate noun classes as normally
taking the inflected genitive:
(a) person names: clinaton’s scandal
(b) personal nouns: the girl’s new doll.
(c) cllective nouns: the army’s maneuvers.
(d) Higher animals: the dog’s tail.
Quirk (197 2:192 -201 ) also listed the following kinds of in animate nouns as
taking the inflected genitive.
(e) Geographical names: continents: Africa’s treasure countries: china’s
mounments.
States: pennsylvania’s governor.
Cities/towns: cairo’s delta.
Universities: oxford’s linguistics department.
(f) Locative nouns: They denote regions, institutions, heavenly bodies, etc. They
can be very similar to geographical names asin:
The moon’s surface
A country’s population.
(g) Temporal nouns: The week’s events
yesterday’s work.
(h) Nouns of special in terst to human activity: They denote parts of the body,
cultural activities, means of transport, etc. asin: The mind’s development.
The game’s history.
The ship’s deck.

In their explanation of periphastic genitive, Thomson and Martinet (198 6:31)

state that the “of + noun” is used for Possession nouns the following situations:
1) a- The son of Tony Blair, the prime minister of Britain.
b- the house of the woman we met.
i) With in animate Possessor’s except vehicles of transport asin:
1) a- The ceiling of the room.
b- The bridges of the city.
 Quirk (1972:201 ) indicate that the periphastic genitive is “chiefly used with
nouns... denoting lower animals and with [some] in animate nouns.” of course
there are some in animate nouns which take the inflected genitive as explained
above.

Bolinger and Sears(1981:232 ) speak about a changing rule for the

Possessive: some older speakers still avoid expressions like the college’s president,
the garden’s fertility, and few of any age should say *spanish’s words or * Italian’s
derivations. The old rule limited Possessives to persons or to what could be easily
person: field; The new rule admits them for purely relational purpose, where un of
- phrase would have been used before: president of the college, the fertility of the
garden. This change has been going on for along time.
3.3 Genitive of pronoun

Green baum and Nelson (2002:200-201 ) pointed out that certain indefinite
pronouns have a genitive ending in (s). These are “one compound sending in-one”
(some one) and “compounds ending in body” (some body).
e.g. (10) one’s friend some one’s more any body’s idea

In the combination with also (s) add to alse

e.g. (11) some one else’s coat.
(12) some one else’s books.

The indefinite pronoun (other) follows the general rule for nouns; the genitive
singular is (other’s) and the genitive plural (other’s).
e.g. (13) each other’s letters.
(14) the other’s problems (the problems of the others)
East wood (1994:213 ) says that Possessive pronoun ending in (s) should not have
apostrophe like (mine, your, his, hers, ours and theirs).
e.g. (15) the book is mine.

There are Possessive determiners like (my, your, his, her, its and their).
e.g. (16) it’s my book.

It is possible to use Possessive with parts of the body.

e.g. (17) I have hurt my back. I have hurt the back.
Both climbers broke their legs.
e.g. (18) I like her eyes.

Green baum and Nelson (2002:200-201)

3.4. Genitive of adjectives

According to Gilders leeve and lodge (1968:246 ), the ablative is the

adverbial, as the genitive is the adjective case. It has been suggested that the
ablative is, as well, the most complex of those that complement a verb, perhaps
reflecting the many facts of being “adverbial”. It collapses a range of "adverbial
distenction. Is the genitive, however, most appropriately though of ‘adjectival’? I
have already suggested that in its non partitive adnominal (adjective) aspect the
genitive in (for instance) English involves a complex, dual-function, configuration.
“Let us look at some thing of the range of uses in latin.”

In some instancesthe genitive seems tobe inter pretable as distinctly partitive

(Gilders leeve and lodge 1968:369 ).

Gilders leeve and lodge’s traditional ‘adjectival’ labal all uded to above
semms tabe intended to capture there following: The genitive marks attributive
nouns: Gilders leeve and lodge (and others) provided detailed attempts at
classification of attributive. John’s ideas (e.g. John has ideas). The latin attributive.
genitive is on this view a "minimal" morphological cases signalling
"attributiveness" rather than some positive semantic relation.

They point to the adjectival forms used for first and second person
"possession"
e.g. friend: GEN. SG my/your : NOM. SG

The genitive here again marks attributive formation. And, again it can be
interpreted, in this respect, as the minimal case. Thus the relation between the
genitive and preceding noun in amor can be merely one of attribution; the
ambiguity (experiencer or absolutive) reflects alternative realizations of the correct
argument structure of the base verbs not the purely nominal relation marked by the
genitive.

3.5. Summary
In the Possessive form of noun, the Possessive morpheme [-sps] has the same
phonologically conditioned allomorphs as the plural: /-s/, /-z/, and /-dz/.
A noun Possessive is ambiguous when it expresses more than one relation
ship at the same time.
Certain indefinite pronoun have a genitive ending in s. These are compounds
ending in one (some one) and compoundending in body (some body)
There are Possessive determiners like (my, your, his, her, its and their).
The status of adjectives in genitive construction since no thing can interven
between the members of a construct, all attributive adjective describing either
member must follow the construct.
 Section Four

Conclusion

The genitive case is one of the prominent pheromena has two forms inflected
and periphrastic. Preposition can be used to express the genitive in English
constructions formally related to the case form, as in the past-modifying genitive
with of English e.g. the car of the general (= the general’s car). The genitive
considered a morphological porperty of nouns in English.

In English, a genitive construction is formed by attaching an (’s) which has

three allomorphs /z/, /iz/ and /s/ that are phonologically conditioned by the final
sound of the modifying noun.

In genitive case double genitive are post-nominal genitive phrases which are
marked with preposition of. The s-genitive and of construction is a similarity of
function and meaning between the two constructions. In genitive of pronouns have
a genitive ending in (’s) these are one compounds ending (some one) and
compounds ending in body (some body), while in genitive of nouns are divided
into singular nouns, plural nouns and Possessive nouns.
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