Топик: Category of number of the noun

The main meaning of the genitive case-possession, Possessive case, main modifications:

1. the idea of belonging : John’s coat

2. Different kinds of relations:

a) Relation of the whole to its part (Jon’s leg)

b) Personal or social relations (John’s wife)

3. subjective relations (The doctor’s arrival, the Chekhov’s book)

4. authorship (Byron’s poem)

5. objective relations (John’s arrest-he was arrested)

6. measure (an hour’s trip, a mile’s distance)

‘s lost the meaning of possession (woman’s work, idiot’s smile, women’s college, angel’s eyes)

The use of genitive case & its equivalent of-phrase

1) with nouns denoting persons & animals(John’s idea, swalow’s nest). With other nouns -of+noun phrase

2) with nouns denoting time & distance(minute, moment, year & substantivized adverbs - today)today’s papers-сегодняшние, the papers of today-сегодняшнего дня)

3) with the names of countries & towns(Britain’s national museum, Canada’s population)

4) with the names of newspapers denoting different kinds of organizations(company’s plan, Guardian’s analysis, Geographical Society’s gold medal)

5) with the nouns world, nation, country, city, town(the nation’s health)

6) with the nouns ship, boat, car(ship’s crew)

7) with nouns denoting planets(sun, moon, earth)(this earth’s life)

8) set expressions: to one heart’s content(desire), at death’s door, at arm’s length, out of harm’s way, a hair’s breadth, a needle’s eye, at a stone’s throe, to move at a snail’s pace, at the water’s edge

The syntactical function of the genitive –attribute. It’s always used as a premodifier & sometimes called the depend genitive .

The absolute genitive – when the genitive case is not followed by the headword & when it stands for the whole noun phrase:

It is used:

1) to avoid repetition (our house is better than Mary’s(house))

2) after the preposition of (an old frend of my mother’s)

3) to denote shops (the grocer’s, the baker’s)

4) saints’ name St Paul’s(cathedral)

5) places of residence (at my uncle’s, at Timothy’s)

Double genitive

1) My mother’s father’s people

2) The boy’s half-hour’s run