English grammar - Roger Berry 2012
A2.4 The genitive
A2 Nouns
Section A. Introduction
This is the other way in which nouns change their form; it is also called the ’possessive’ form. The genitive is formed by adding -’s to the singular and an apostrophe to the plural:
(singular) cat genitive: cat’s
(plural) cats genitive: cats’
The pronunciation of both is exactly the same as for the regular plural, and there are the same three possible pronunciations (see the Website Reference A2.4).
In many cases there is hesitation over whether to spell words as a genitive or plural (since the pronunciation is the same), especially if the head noun (see A3) is no longer mentioned, for example:
I’m going to the butcher’s/butchers. (where shop is not mentioned)
And an apostrophe is sometimes used to mark an unusual plural form:
I’ve got no 10’s but two 20’s.
The genitive is really a feature of the noun phrase (see A3) rather than nouns. If the noun phrase has postmodification (that is, some words following which affect its meaning - see A3), or involves coordination (see A9), the ending is attached to the last noun:
the manager of the team’s decision (the manager’s decision, not the team’s)
Will and Emmas car
Meaning and use of the genitive
The genitive is used to modify another noun; it is part of a noun phrase and has the same position and function as determiners (see B3):
Where’s the cat’s blue bowl?
Cats’ paws suffer many injuries.
The meaning is often said to involve possession (John’s car), but there are many other relationships that are shown (which is why ’genitive’ is a better name than ’possessive’).
Activity A2.5
Look at the following noun phrases and work out the relationship between the genitive and the following noun:
1. Roger Federer’s defeat
2. the man’s death
3. John’s sister
4. Mary’s lover
5. the writer’s reputation
6. the planet’s atmosphere
The genitive and ’of’ phrases
The genitive is sometimes said to be equivalent to postmodification of a noun with an of phrase:
the mans death / the death of the man
but there are situations where both can sound strange:
the day’s start (?) vs the start of the day
the car of John (?) vs John’s car
There are a number of factors or tendencies that affect the choice. With animate nouns (that is, those referring to people or animals) the genitive is most common, as in the activity above, particularly when it is indicating an underlying subject (for example, Peter’s decision), but there are situations where it is used with inanimate nouns to refer to times and places, or to part/whole relationships:
next year’s fashions, London’s attractions, the table’s surface
The of construction is more common with long noun phrases:
the success of the youthful English cricket team (rather than the youthful English cricket team’s success)
Another use of the genitive is in a construction called the ’double genitive’ where it is part of an of phrase:
He’ a friend of Johns.
Compared to He is John’s friend, this construction allows a determiner, usually a, to be added to the head noun, as in the example. (Of course, it is also possible to say a friend of John, without the genitive, but this sounds less idiomatic.)