Дипломная работа: Structural and semantic Characteristics of Nouns

Her daughter lost == daughter’s loss

Her daughter was lost == daughter’s loss

In other words, having no voice distinctions, the noun loss may correspond to both the active and the passive voice of the verb.

Since both 'possessive case' and 'common case' nouns may have right-hand connections with other nouns, it is interesting to see the difference between the two combinations in speech. This is what W. N. Francis writes on the subject [31] : "Nouns make up a considerable number (as many as 25 per sent) of the single-word modifiers of nouns

Possessive Noun-adjunct

child's play child psychology

a dog's life the dog days

a day's work the day shift'

my father's house a father image

that woman's doctor that woman doctor

The last pair illustrates vividly the difference in meaning there may be between these two structures of modification. The formal difference between them may be described as follows: a construction with of may be substituted for the possessive construction, and the determiner [32] (if there is one) will then go with the modifying noun; on the other hand, some other kind of construction must be substituted for the noun-adjunct, and the determiner goes with the head noun. In the following illustrations the symbol > means "transforms into"

My father's house > house of my father

that father image > that image like (a) father

that woman's doctor > doctor of that woman

that woman doctor > that doctor who is a woman.

As we see, the relations expressed by a 'possessive case' noun can usually be rendered by its 'common case' opposite preceded by of (the so-called 'of-phrase'). The 'possessive case' noun and the corresponding of-phrase are synonymous, but to a certain extent only.

Unlike the possessive case, the o/-phrase is freely used with all nouns irrespective of their lexical meanings. Its range of meaning is much wider than that of the possessive case. Thus, besides the 'possessive case' relations already mentioned it may show the relations of appraisal (a man of strong will), of material (a table of oak), of composition (a group of children), etc.

The of-phrase is believed to sound more formal than the possessive case. In formal style it is more common than the possessive.

E. g. Head of a girl (in a picture or sculpture exhibition programme), not a girl's head.

In the Russian language a noun in the genitive case may be adnominal and adverbial, i.e. it can be attached to a noun and to a verb.

E.g. дом отца, боюсь грозы.

The possessive case is practically adnominal, as in Tom's departure.

In sentences like The idea is George's, where George's is not followed by a noun, it is sometimes called the 'independent possessive'. But in reality it is not independent, as it refers to some noun, usually mentioned previously (the word idea in the sentence above). Therefore such possessives are called 'anaphorical'. But this term would be misapplied in cases like George's was a brilliant idea, where the noun idea follows the possessive.

Seeing that there is exact parallelism with the use of the so-called absolute possessive pronouns (The idea is mine. Mine was a brilliant idea), we shall call such possessives absolute.

In Modern English there exists a peculiar construction which is a combination of the possessive case and the of-phrase. The construction makes it possible to place an article, a demonstrative pronoun, etc. before the modified noun. Cf. John's friend and a (the, that) friend of John's. The possessive case in the construction is absolute. Cf. a (the, that) friend of yours.

The construction usually has a partitive meaning. A friend of Mary's — one of Mary's friends. It may also be used for stylistic purposes mostly with ironic colouring. That long nose of John's.

In cases like I dined at my aunt's or a garden party at Brown's the possessive case is really independent. It does not refer to any other noun, and does not correspond to an absolute possessive pronoun. The meaning of the independent possessive is that of locality. It denotes the house, shop, cathedral, place of business, etc. of the person denoted by the noun. E. g. the baker's, draper's, watchmaker's, etc., also St. Paul's .

2.3.2 The use of Articles with Nouns in Some Set Expessions

a) The use of indefinite article with nouns in some set expressions.[33]

1. in a hurry — второпях