¹ ‘I take pleasure in sending you this official transcript of a minute formally adopted by the Linguistic Society of America, on December 27, 1926, at Cambridge, Mass., on recommendation of the Executive Committee: The Linguistic Society of America, recognizing the scientific value of a survey of the inflections and syntax of American English, hereby expresses its approval of the plans formulated by the Committees of the Modern Language Association and of the National Council of Teachers of English, for this purpose, and joins these organizations in urging the United States Government to make available for such a scientific study correspondence in its possession. Roland G. Kent, Secretary.‘

² W. H. H. Kelke, An Epitome of English Grammar 77.

³ H. Poutsma, A Grammar of Late Modern English 2.41.

⁴ G. P. Mason, English Grammar 44.

⁵ O. F. Emerson, The History of the English Language 320.

⁶ Otto Jespersen, Language 351, 352.

⁷ This is frequently offered as the ‘reason’ for the ‘rule’ that the genitive inflection should be attached only to words referring to persons or to such beings as can really ‘possess’ things.

^7a They are cited by the serial number of the letter.

⁸ A distinction has been made between the subjective genitive and the genitive of origin in such cases as “the man's resignation” or “the boy's application” on the following basis. When the context showed that the attention centered in the activity—the fact that the man resigned or that the boy applied—the genitive was called the subjective genitive; when the attention centered upon a resultant thing, as, for example, the document in which the man expressed his intention of resigning, or the letter in which the application was made, the genitive was called a genitive of origin.

^8a Typical examples are:

‘Nothing was said about his mother receiving it’ (5104)

‘Did you know of the company coming here?‘ (7553)

‘There is no record in this office of any stone being taken’ (7051)

‘There is no record of this officer having been assigned to this detachment or of his ever having reported here’ (7356)

⁹ In these I find it difficult to describe and classify the precise relation which exists between the genitive and the noun it modifies.

¹⁰ Typical examples of the genitive pronoun before the gerund are:

“in the event of my being assigned to ... ” (9043)

“correspondence concerning my taking an examination” (9008)

“As to my being on the eligible list” (9042)

“nothing to indicate my having received a citation” (9018)

“the report of his having such a fight” (7094)

“She had given her consent to his entering the army” (8144)

“because of his being a married man” (6416)

“Have you known of his ever being guilty of anything that ...” (7093)

“How did you come to tell him of your having done this?” (7091)

“concerning the matter of your having consulted certain notes that were of assistance to you” (7091)

Typical examples of the pronoun in the dative-accusative form in similar constructions are:

“that led to me being questioned with regard to his efficiency” (7088)

“he went away without me knowing” (8040)

“without us knowing anything about it” (8018)

“conditions are such as would justify you taking favorable action” (7089)

“certain things were done without you being consulted” (7092)

“There is no doubt about him being married” (8130)

“I never heard of him working hard” (7087)

“My choice of the University of Nebraska is made because of it being my former school” (9050)

¹¹ My daughter, in speaking of two sweaters that were used on teddy-bears belonging to her and her brother, used the following; “This blue one is Chucky's teddy-bear's sweater and that red one is mine's.”

¹² Leon Kellner, Historical Outlines of English Syntax 97.

¹³ C. T. Onions, An Advanced English Syntax 94, 96.

¹⁴ The facts are set forth in an unpublished dissertation by Russell Thomas, entitled Syntactical Processes Involved in the Development of the Adnominal Periphrastic Genitive in the English Language. The periphrastic genitive rises to 6.3% in the 12th century, to 31.4% early in the 13th century, and to 84.4% by the end of the 14th century.

¹⁵ Those constructions with of were counted as periphrastic genitives for which a parallel could be found using an inflected genitive.

e.g. G. & E.45,1548: Of win and olie fulsum-hed.

Gen.H. 155,37: ic sealde him mycelnysse hwaetes and wines.

..............................

Sthn.Passion,5,118: đe children of þe temple.

Bede 4,17: fram þam brodrum þaes mystres.

¹⁶ I include as genitive inflections of pronouns, the forms my, our, your, his, her, its, their, whose, as well as the absolute forms mine, ours, yours, hers, theirs. These absolute forms and the absolute use of his and its appeared in these materials so seldom, however, that their exclusion or inclusion makes practically no difference in the result. There were but ten instances in all. I cannot argue here the case for preferring to deal with these pronoun forms as genitives. It will be evident from the materials and examples presented above in section I of this paper that these forms of the pronouns cover practically the same range of ideas as do the genitive inflections of the nouns. They are by no means limited to the ‘possessive sense’. The facts that these genitives did sometimes take adjective inflections in Middle English, and that there are adjective equivalents for them in Latin or in German seem to me to be beside the point. See also G. O. Curme. Syntax, 526, 527. The adnominal genitive, whether of noun or of pronoun, has always been and still continues to be adjectival in its function. Compare the following statement from W. D. Whitney, in Sanskrit Grammar 98: ‘The proper value of the genitive is adjectival; it belongs to and qualifies a noun, designating something relating to the latter in a manner which the nature of the case, or the connection, defines more clearly.‘

¹⁷ Henry Sweet, New English Grammar §1996.

¹⁸ For the sake of clearness and brevity I am omitting all discussion of such combinations as stone wall, cannon ball, sea water in which the first word has been called a genitive of material. Such combinations however, certainly contributed to the development I am trying to describe. See Jespersen, Modern English Grammar 2. 30 ff.

¹⁹ G. O. Curme, Syntax 113.

²⁰ E. P. Morris, On Principles and Methods in Latin Syntax 102, 103, 104.