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Have enjoyed reading the exchange of comments and the obvious good humor on this forum. I would like to participate when I have something to offer.
I came across an interesting magazine article recently and would like to offer this item for your consideration and comments. I will pose it as a question and see if it merits any discussion.
Is the following sentence properly punctuated?
"He is a good friend of Robert's."
This may be too basic a question to raise for this level of scholarship--if so, I apologize and will restrict my future participation to commenting on other people's posts.
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Joined: Feb 2002
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old hand
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old hand
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Welcome aBoard, JohnHawaii! Don't you dare even think of restricting yourself to responding to other people's posts....Jump in and enjoy!
As to your question, I'd say: yes, that sentence is properly punctuated. (Have you been reading the "apostrophe" posts, by any chance?!)
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stranger
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stranger
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With the possessive like that, it refers to an unidentified object, as in: "He is a good friend of Robert's acquaintance." Probably better is to drop the possessive, and say merely: "He is a good friend of Robert." Usually less is more.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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it refers to an unidentified object Hey, spike, where were you when I was posting about two weeks' worth? I meant to say what you said, uh huh, I did.  Welcome aBoard, and you too, Cap'n. (Hey, Ms. wow, you gotta talk to this guy!!) Mercy--as was said very recently here, Dear, the only stupid question is the one you didn't ask. Please don't restrict yourself to commenting on others' posts.
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Joined: Sep 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Welcome, JHawaii!
Hmmmm. I'm in disgreement with the majority.
He is a good friend of Mary. He is good friend (let's replace Mary with a pronoun here) of her. That flat doesn't ring right to me. He is a good friend of her. Nope. Don't like it at all.
He is a good friend of Mary's. He is a good friend of hers. Now that sounds right.
I'd go with: He is a good friend of Robert's. He is good friend of his. Not: He is a good friend of Robert. He is a good friend of him.
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Joined: Dec 2002
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>He is a good friend of Robert's. He is good friend of his. Not: He is a good friend of Robert. He is a good friend of him.
to tell you the truth, i don't really understand why..?_?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Rav,
I'm not sure what you don't understand, but let me list here some examples so you might understand my viewpoint better.
First, we can replace nouns and proper nouns with pronouns. Pronouns come in handy when figuring out points of grammar.
I'll list below some examples:
1. Jackie and AnnaS posted only three times in one week on the board.
2. Jackie and she (not her) posted only three times...
3. They posted only three times...
4.. I read two posts of Jackie's.
4. I read two posts of hers (but not: her).
I wouldn't write:
5. I read three posts of Jackie.
Or:
6. I read three posts of her.
Now back to Robert and his friends.
We can get at this idea many ways:
1. Who is Robert's friend?
2. Who is his?
They both work.
1. John is a good friend of Robert.
Now we've got a problem if we want to replace the object of the preposition with a pronoun. Strictly speaking, Robert must be replaced with third person singular objective case: him. So we end up with:
2. John is a good friend of him.
That doesn't work for my ear.
Even worse, suppose I replace Robert with myself:
1. John is my good friend. John is a good friend of mine. (2 examples that work.)
2. (But this doesn't work:) John is a good friend of me.
Yuck!
So, now take a look at the original sentence offered by John Hawaii:
1. He is a good friend of Robert's.
Like Modestgoddess, I think that sentence is perfectly grammatical. Test it out with a replacement by a pronoun and you get:
1. He is a good friend of his.
That works, too, grammatically. Where I have a problem is when we replace "Robert" with him--He is a good friend of Robert...He is a good friend of him. That doesn't work. You would be better off having: He is a good friend of Robert's; and replacing 'Robert's' with 'his' in He is a good friend of his. Or a friend of yours. Or a friend of hers. Or a friend of mine.
But the sentence is a tricky one and I can see where the others are coming from. If I were to read: He is a good friend of Robert--I'd understand, wouldn't parse, would just keep on trucking at a steady beat.
This is just my opinion. It's just mine.
Best regards,
WW
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From xrefer discussing this very topic( http://xrefer.com/entry.jsp?xrefid=592807): It is not easy to explain why such constructions are idiomatic: one can only assert that they are.Bingley
Bingley
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No one's noticed the obvious: He's a good friend of mine. NOT He's a good friend of me.
TEd
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yeah.. think now it's clear.. :)
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