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Joined: Jun 2008
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,957 Likes: 3 |
I believe it, emotional attachment.
----please, draw me a sheep----
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Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,957 Likes: 3
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,957 Likes: 3 |
Hi -back at you. Welcome.
----please, draw me a sheep----
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Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 1,075
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Nov 2011
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Good to have you here, zeun. We're a mad bunch, but mostly harmless!
I'm immortal until proven otherwise
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Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,957 Likes: 3
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,957 Likes: 3 |
Be careful with that statement RC.
----please, draw me a sheep----
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Joined: Nov 2011
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Nov 2011
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Careful? Me? C'mon, now - I have a reputation to maintain.
I'm immortal until proven otherwise
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Incidentally, getting back to the original question:
Back when case meant something in English and we actually marked it in nouns different prepositions took different cases in their noun objects. We have dumped all case markings in nouns except the genitive. So, the one case where it is shown we think is abnormal. Really, it's all the instances where it's not shown that are the abnormal ones.
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Joined: Jun 2006
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295 |
I dug up the initial post Here's a little thing I longtime wanted to ask. You say:
I will be at my sister's.
She's a friend of my sister's.
In the first sentence this seems clearly to mean: "At my sister's " house or place.
The second form always struck me as odd. "a friend of my sister's" ... what?
Maybe I am making mistakes here, but I just would like to know the details about this. (thanks) I reread the Michael Quinion article from Jim's link and keep on using the double genitive anyway as it's stuck in my head since schooldays. > link
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Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 291
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 291 |
I dug up the initial post Here's a little thing I longtime wanted to ask. You say:
I will be at my sister's.
She's a friend of my sister's.
In the first sentence this seems clearly to mean: "At my sister's " house or place.
The second form always struck me as odd. "a friend of my sister's" ... what?
Maybe I am making mistakes here, but I just would like to know the details about this. (thanks) I reread the Michael Quinion article from Jim's link and keep on using the double genitive anyway as it's stuck in my head since schooldays. > link "a friend of my sister" is good.
live in the moment
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Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 2,399 Likes: 8
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 2,399 Likes: 8 |
I have been looking back over this discussion, and there is one possible explanation that no-one has mentioned.
"A friend of my sister's" implies that my sister has two or more friends and we are referring to one of them. So we mean "a friend of [= from among] my sister's friends".
"Of" here means not "belonging to my sister's friends" but "part of the group of her friends". This is why we cannot say "the friend of my sister's" – there cannot be a group if she has only one friend.
So I think the double genitive is perfectly logical.
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Joined: May 2010
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 963 |
Thank you, A C. That's my sense of the thing exactly.
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