Allison,
 
I think that modern English, at least colloquially,  treats the possessive marker not as a case ending, but as an enclitic.  Many grammars I have seen include a phrase like the "Queen of England's crown" noting that the possessive is not logically placed on "England" in such cases.  Your example is excellent, in that it also shows that the possessive belongs on the noun phrase syntactically, but attaches itself to the last word.  Normally the phrase is structured so that the last word is a noun, but this would not seem to be absolutely necessary, as in your example, where it is on a pronoun "you."  Perhaps the following might also be allowed:
 
The man who comes in's prize is a ribbon.
The man who runs fastest's prize is a ribbon. 
The man who win's prize is a ribbon.
 
In this last example, the word "wins" already has an "s" on it, so the possessive can hide underneath it.  I suspect that the possessive enclitic is most comfortable following a noun, and that for it to appear otherwise is distinctly colloquial.  I don't believe sentences like these will be appearing in any novel anytime soon. 
 
Bruce
----- Original Message -----
From: [log in to unmask] href="mailto:[log in to unmask]">Allison Rose
To: [log in to unmask] href="mailto:[log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]
Sent: Sunday, November 20, 2005 10:29 AM
Subject: Re: Adjective phrase modifying a possessive

Kirsten,

I believe that since the modifier "intensely cruel and unusually nasty" comes before the possessive "neighbor's," one could assume that it modifies "neighbor's," making it an issue of position in the sentence. If it were to modify "car" or "shitty car," it would read something like "my neighbor's intensely cruel, unusually nasty, (and) shitty car," placing the modifier after the possessive so that it reads with "car" instead. I think that in some situations (or maybe all; I'm not sure), adjectival or even adverbial modifiers come before the nouns, pronouns, phrases, or clauses they modify. Also, unless the car is being personified or shows up in something like The Phantom Tolbooth, the reader may find it difficult to believe a car could be "intensely cruel and unusually nasty."

As far as an unambiguous modifier, something like this may work:

"The late Tony Morrison's genius enabled her to. . . ." or "The beautiful girl's bedroom was completely at odds with her looks: It was a right pigsty."

However, there is also the example given by Matthew McConaughey in the movie "Frailty" that has been bugging me for quite some time now:

"Unless the man who's standing before you's name is Adam Meeks."

This drives me crazy because I can't figure out if "man" should be the only piece of the possessive, or if he should instead say something like, "Unless the name of the man standing before you is Adam Meeks," or if the entire relative clause "who's standing before you's" is part of the whole possessive. Any thoughts on this one?

Allison
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