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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
it wanted to disappear disambiguifiedHell, that would have been a loss to poetry
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773 |
"he's not here."
Ah! Avoidance is the Sparteye-preferred method of solving such grammatic conundrums. Otherwise, I get all tanglied-up.
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
It's only a bonus if his name happens to be Dave, man.
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065 |
Unfortunately not, it's Candi.
Bingley
Bingley
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027 |
. I thank you all for muddying the waters Let me stir it a little more: He went to the birthday party of a student of his.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027 |
But "a friend of Molly" is no more ambiguous and can only mean that and nothing else. Or does it? To me, there is a slight disparaging note to this version: Molly is somehow objectified, compared with a friend of Molly's.
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065 |
If we change the phrase from "a friend of Molly's" to "the friend of Molly's", then I think the additional possessive does perform a function. Compare:
That's the friend of Molly who always falls down the stairs at parties.
That's the friend of Molly's who always falls down the stairs of at parties.
I think the second sentence leaves us in no doubt that it is the friend who gets legless rather than that fine upstanding specimen of womanhood, Molly, while the first sentence causes some momentary doubt.
Also I think there is an implication in "the friend of Molly" that this is her one and only friend, while "the friend of Molly's" lets us know that Molly has lots of friends, of whom this is one.
Bingley
Bingley
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