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Gender

Nouns (gender and case) 2

Gender distinctions (of pronouns)

masculine / feminie / neuter

personal / nonpersonal


Personal male/female nouns

who – he; who – she

morphologically unmarked

e.g.: uncle ~ aunt; bachelor ~ spinster

morphologycally marked

e.g.: host ~ hostess; bridegroom ~ bride

sex-neutral forms (AmE)

e.g: s/he; wo/man; firefighter (fireman); spokesperson (spokesman)


Personal dual gender

e.g.: artist, doctor, parent, student

marking => male/female student


Common gender

Between personal and nonpersonal

e.g.: child, baby

reference: he/she/it who/which


Animals

Higher animals

distinct forms

e.g.: bull ~ cow

pronouns can be he/she/it and who/which

Lower animals

no distinct forms

pronouns: as in the case of higher animals


Names of countries

geographical units, as a class (inanimate): neuter

e.g.: Here is a map of England. It’s a nice country.

political/economic unit: feminine

e.g.: Belgium has increased her exports by 50% since 1998.

team (sport): as collective noun

e.g.: Spain have/has improved a lot since the last World Championships.


Cases

nominative

accusative

genitive

etc.

In English?

=> common vs. genitive (Quirk et al, 1985)


Forms of genitive inflection

Regular Ns

pronunciation:

/iz/ (niece’s), /z/ (boy’s), /s/ (cat’s)

spelling: i. The spies were arrested. [pl, common]

ii. The spy’s companion was a woman. [sg, genitive]

iii. The spies’ companions were women. [pl, genitive]

=> i and ii are the same in pronunciation: zero genitive

Irregular Ns

e.g.: child’s ~ children’s


The zero genitive

Greek names

e.g.: Euripides’, Socrates’

some names ending in /z/ (spelling vs. pronunciation)

e.g.: Dickens’, Jones’, Burns’

some fixed expressions, with Ns ending in /s/

e.g.: for ... sake (for goodness’ sake)


The genitive and the of-construction

Corresponance:

What is the name of the ship?

What is the ships’s name?

BUT:

John’s school vs. ?the school of John


The genitive N and the head

structure of genitives (compared to of-constructions)

1. meaning expressed by the relationship between the

head and the genitive

2. N types taking the genitive

3. N heads with the genitive


Relationship between the head and the genitive

possessive genitive

e.g.: my friend’s flat ~ my friend has a flat

subjective genitive

e.g.: John’s application ~ John applied for ...

objective genitive

e.g.: the family’s support ~ ... supported the family

genitive of origin

e.g.: the general’s letter ~ the letter the general wrote...

descriptive genitive

e.g.: women’s college ~ a college for women


Relationship between the head and the genitive

genitive of measure

e.g.: three weeks’ holiday ~ the holiday lasted three weeks

genitive of attribute

e.g.: the victim’s courage ~ the victim had courage

partitative genitive

e.g.: Kate’s eyes ~ Kate has (blue) eyes

Not much help to account for choosing either the genitive or the of-construction.


Ns taking the genitive

personal names and personal nouns

animal nouns

collective nouns

geographical names

locative nouns

temporal nouns

Ns with reference to human activity


Genitive in favour…

classes highest on the gender scale personal Ns

collective Ns (with personal gender features)

focus (& end-weight) On the head noun (as opposed to of-constructions)

e.g.: The explosion damaged the ship’s funnel.

vs. Having looked at all the funnels, she considered that the most handsome was the funnel of the Orion.


The genitive with the superlatives and ordinals

Meanings independent from those listed above (under relationships between genitive and head):

the world’s best universities ~ the best universities in the world

this country’s only university ~ the only university in this country

the Cabinet’s greatest mistake ~ the greatest mistake that the Cabinet made


Noun heads allowing both the genitive and the

of-construction

edge (the river’s edge ~ the edge of the river)

for ... sake (for heaven’s sake ~ for the sake of

heaven)

end, surface

BUT only genitive: at one’s wits, at arm’s length,

within arm’s reach


The grammatical status of the genitive

determinative

the desk

John’s flat

my sister’s boyfriend

In this case, any word preceding the genitive noun belong to that noun rather than to the head of the superordinate NP.

BUT: all, both, half

both the girls’ parents vs. both the girl’s parents


The grammatical status of the genitive

modifier

the words preceding the genitive mostly belong

to the head of the superordinate construction

He sold his old fishermen’s cottage.

BUT modifier in the genitive NP:

How old are those farm workers’ cotteges?


The group genitive

as it has been seen, the ’s ending is not a case ending => placed after / attached to the NP

the teacher of music’s room

* the teacher’s of music room

Similarly:

[[the University of Minnesota]’s] President

[[the Museum of Modern Art]’s] Director


The independent genitive

ommission of the head of the genitive

construction if the context makes it possible

My car is faster than Peter’s.

Mary’s was the prettiest dress.

(ellipsis or quasi-ellipsis)


The ‘local genitive’

head noun ommitted when reference to premises or establishments

We’ll meet at Bill’s.

the reference can also be a restaurant, bar, etc.

What about breakfast at Tiffany’s?

when reference to one-person business, commercial firm, professional establishment

I’m going to the dentist’s.



in general, it is used in the case of

normal residences

e.g.: I’ll stay at my aunt’s.

institutions like public buildings

e.g.: St. Paul’s (Cathedral)

places where business is conducted

e.g.: the hairdresser’s, the butcher’s



-s endings of companies: Harrods, Barclays =>

as collective nouns, with sg/pl concord

-s ending + indefinite article: genitive is

compulsory

The have taken the rug to a cleaner’s / a cleaners’ /

*a cleaners.


The ‘post-genitive’ / double genitive

of-construction + genitive as prepositional

complement

e.g.: some friends of Jim’s

! indefiniteness


Genitive or of-construction?

Functions:

genitive noun: definite determinative

of-phrase: superordinate NP is definite or

indefinite

the funnel of the ship ~ the ship’s funnel

the funnel of a ship ~ a ship’s funnel

a funnel of the ship



Factors

Lexical factors

Relational factors

Subjective and objective relation

Syntactic factors

Communicative factors



Lexical factors

genitive: higher gender classes

of-construction inanimates, normally

e.g.: the roof of the house ~ *the house’s roof

both: geographical nouns, inanimate Ns denoting location, time

e.g.: last year’s profit, China’s / the world’s population

BUT: ?China’s map



Relational factors

relation between the two Ns, like in the

case of partitative constructions

e.g.: a glass of water ~ *a water’s glass



Subjective and objective relation

like subjective and objective genitive the arrival of the train ~ the train’s arrival

the imprisonment of the murderer ~ the murderer’s imprisonment

objective: genitive is not common except for deverbal head Ns

e.g.: men of science ~ *science’s man

generally speaking: subjective: usually genitive or of-construction

objective: usually of-construction

NOTE: intransitives => ambiguity

e.g.: the shooting of the rebels



Syntactic factors

related to expansion

restrictive/nonrestrictive postmodification

head modified

the arrival of a friend(,) which had been expected for several weeks

a friend’s arrival which had been expected for several weeks

other noun modified

the arrival of a friend who had been expected for several weeks

*a friend’s arrival who had been expected for several weeks



Economic factors

focus, end-weight

the world’s ecomony

the economy of the world


The ‘post-genitive’ / double genitive

postmodifier must be human

e.g.: an opera of Verdi’s ~ *an opera of a composer’s

the head must be indefinite

e.g.: *The daughter of Mrs Brown’s has arrived.

BUT demonstrative is fine: that car of John’s

the head cannot be a proper noun

e.g.: *Mary of Mrs Brown’s

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