Definition:
A possessive construction (such as "the man next door's cat") in which 's appears at the end of a noun phrase whose final word is not its head or is not its only head.
See also:
Examples and Observations:
- "To a mind trained exclusively in Latin (or German) grammar such English constructions as 'the Queen of England's power,' or 'he took somebody else's hat,' must seem very preposterous; the word that ought to be in the genitive case (Queen, somebody) is put in the nominative or accusative, while in the one instance England, whose power is not meant, and in the other even an adverb, is put in the genitive case. . . .
"It will not be easy to lay down fully definite and comprehensive rules for determining in which cases the group genitive is allowable and in which the s has to be affixed to each member; the group construction is, of course, easiest when one and the same name is common to two persons mentioned (Mr. and Mrs. Brown's compliments), or when the names form an inseparable group (Beaumont and Fletcher's plays; Macmillan & Co.'s publications). On the whole, the tendency is toward using the group genitive, whenever no ambiguity is caused by it."
(Otto Jespersen, Progress in Language, 1909) - "A shoeshine boy came in with the news that a porter in the building had broken his leg. 'The fellow that washes the windows?' somebody asked. 'No, suh,' said the lad, 'the fellow that washes the windows' brother.'"
(The New Yorker, Jan. 21, 1939) - "Where two or more distinct persons, animals, etc., are in the genitive, the group genitive applies only when there is joint possession, responsibility, relationship, as in 'William and Mary's reign' and 'Jack, Tom, and Mary's uncle.' If two separate possessions or other relationships are concerned, each noun must clearly be shown in the genitive."
(Eric Partridge, You Have a Point There, Routledge, 1978)
