possessive case

Definition:

The case (or function) of an inflected form of a noun (Santa's, the boss's) showing ownership, measurement, or source. In addition to the -'s ending (a clitic), the possessive can be expressed with of, particularly when the possessor is not alive (the top floor of the building, the base of the statue).

Possessive case also refers to a type of pronoun (mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs) or determiner (my, your, his, her, its, our, their) that indicates ownership, measurement, or source. (Note that his and its function as both pronouns and determiners.)

The possessive case is also known as the genitive case.

See also:

• Possessive Determiner
• Possessive Pronoun


• Apostrophe
• Double Genitive
• Group Genitive
• Guidelines for Using Apostrophes Correctly
• Independent Genitive
• Objective Case
• Subjective Case
• Using the Different Forms of Pronouns

Examples and Observations:

• "I will not hide the teacher's Prozac."
  (Bart Simpson, The Simpsons)



• "Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands."
  (Anne Frank)



• "People who have given us their complete confidence believe that they have a right to ours. The inference is false: a gift confers no rights."
  (Friedrich Nietzsche)



• Cartman: Give me back my kidney!
  Stan: Dude, please, Kyle needs it!
  Cartman: It's mine! Not yours, mine! Give it back right now or there's going to be hell to pay!
  ("Cherokee Hair Tampons." South Park, 2000)



• "The winner's edge is all in the attitude, not aptitude."
  (Denis Waitley)



• " My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl who saw Ferris pass out at 31 Flavors last night. I guess it's pretty serious."
  (Kristy Swanson as Simone, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, 1986)



• "An Englishman's way of speaking absolutely classifies him."
  (Alan Jay Lerner)



• Group Genitive
  "What precedes the possessive ending need not be a single-word compound but can be a phrase, as in my neighbor next door's dog, or even a clause, as in a woman I know's niece."
  (Laurel J. Brinton, The Structure of Modern English: A Linguistic Introduction. John Benjamins, 2000)



• Possessives Before Gerunds
  "In your writing, when a pronoun appears before a gerund (an -ing verbal used as a noun), use the possessive case. We have tasted their cooking. In this example, cooking is used as a noun and is the direct object of have tasted. If a pronoun appears before a participle, use the objective case. We have watched them cooking. In this second example, cooking is used as a participle to describe them."
  (Robert DiYanni and Pat C. Hoy, The Scribner Handbook for Writers, 3rd ed. Allyn and Bacon, 2001)



• Double Genitive
  An old friend of your father's invited us to visit the wine country.



• Possessive and Genitive
  "The genitive has also been called the possessive, since one of its meanings has been to denote the possessor of what is referred to by the second noun phrase, as in 'the couple's home.' But possession has to be interpreted liberally if it is to cover many instances of the genitive and the of-phrase. In a liberal interpretation, we could count as possession any connections between the two nouns where the verbs possess or have can be used in a paraphrase; for example, family relationships: Tom's son ('the son that Tom has').
  
  "Here are other examples of the possessive genitive:

  Mexico City's population
  Tom's shock of blond hair
  Napoleon's army
  the local team's morale
  hunger's most acute form
  the world's food reserves
  Peter's illness
  the manufacturer's name and address
  my son's bedroom
  Japan's importance
  the owner's privacy"

  (Sidney Greenbaum, The Oxford English Grammar. Oxford Univ. Press, 1996)

Also Known As: possessive determiner, genitive case, second case