Here's a further comment by Larry Horn on ADS-L

It's actually pretty understandable if you grant
the confusion between the interrogative "whose"
and the relative "whose".  After all, the
standard English pattern is pretty weird:

Whose leg is broken?
Ken's
*The dining table's
vs.
the man/table whose leg is broken

So now for some it's

the man whose leg is broken (or perhaps "who's leg")
the table that's leg is broken

The difference between the interrogative and relative uses of "whose" is certainly curious.

Herb

From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Kathleen Ward
Sent: Thursday, February 17, 2011 1:38 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: "thats" for "whose"

Is there any indication that possessive "that's" is a regionalism?  This conversation has made me realize that  do this quite naturally in casual conversation; in fact, I caught myself saying  the equivalent of


This isn't the room that's wall needs painting.

this morning.  (Topic changed to protect the guilty.)

My native dialect is a pretty recessive one (Boston) and I often notice odd differences.

Kathleen Ward





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