So now I wonder: would I be helping folks or just confusing them further if
I introduced these distinctions in an article meant for a general audience?
Herb, in the article you read in which we distinguish between possessive and
attributive nouns, are we misleading/deceiving our readers or simply failing
to make a rather esoteric distinction?
Regardless of whether this information would be appropriate for our article,
I am grateful that you have broadened my understanding of the topic.
Thanks,
Nancy
Nancy L. Tuten, PhD
Professor of English
Director of the Writing-across-the-Curriculum Program
Columbia College
Columbia, South Carolina
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803-786-3706
-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Stahlke, Herbert F.W.
Sent: Sunday, May 14, 2006 3:32 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Genitive, Partitive, Objective
Sorry. I got a bit carried away with the terms. Partitive refers to a
part-whole relationship, in which the genitive expresses the part, as in
the car's bumper
a pint of milk
a year's salary
Objective describes a genitive that is semantically the thing that undergoes
the action expressed by a deverbal noun or other noun that can have such a
relational meaning, as in
Jack's appointment by the president
The Unibomber's capture
This is in contrast to a subjective genitive, like
The president's appointment of Jack
The FBI's capture of the Unibomber
Genitive is a case label. Since English makes only minimal use of case in
its morphosyntax, we tend to use the term possessive instead, but that, as
you can see, expresses only one of the many meanings carried by genitive
case. As a case label it refers to morphologically distinct forms of nouns
that have the meanings described above.
I hope this helps. If I've been too terse, please let me know.
Herb
-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar on behalf of Jan Kammert
Sent: Sun 5/14/2006 1:40 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Genitive, Partitive, Objective
Can someone give me a simple definition of genitive, partitive, and
objective? I think I'm not the only person on this list who would like
explanations of these terms.
Jan
> Genitive of possession: My car (provided the bank doesn't own it)
> Partitive genitive: Two-thirds of the population
> Genitive of measure: A five foot board, a three year appointment
> Genitive of contents: A cup of coffee
> Subjective genitive: My claim that the train hit the car
> Objective genitive: My arrest for speeding
> Genitive of patient: My experience of teaching
>
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