The dual ownershipoften use both belong to And ‘S to show possession, is grammar. While it’s sometimes not necessary, it can be helpful to distinguish when the case of ownership (or relative ownership) is about affiliation or ownership, such as in “my friend’s picture” versus with “my friend’s picture”.
We’ll illustrate with some delicious cupcakes.
Grammatically, English is sometimes a double possessive—think “that Harry’s mustache,” which can be changed to a single possessive like “Harry’s mustache.” It’s a curious thing, when you think about it. Language curiosity is our specialty, we’re taking a closer look here.
First, a quick review of possessive grammar itself.
Possession of words in English
The possessive form, or possessive manner, in English is usually shown with a ‘S or ‘ tacked at the end of a name or noun. A singular noun is usually received ‘Swhile plural nouns ending in /s/ or /z/ are simply ‘:
Mabel’s entry in the baking contest was a lemon meringue.
Each item’s tag lists only the components used.
The judges were completely unaware of the contestants’ identities.
Possessive adjectives and pronouns can often be used in place of names or nouns:
Mabel made the cake by candlelight.
No one knew that the cake was hers.
A less common and more formal way to show possession is with belong to, often used when it is a thing, rather than a person or animal, that has ownership. Usually, it’s not something that can be touched or held.
Contest winner [=the contest’s winner] will be given the key to the city.
Dual ownership
Sometimes, however, English speakers will express ownership in a double manner, using two methods:
Mabel’s long-standing dream has been to win a baking contest.
This type of construction is called dual ownershipor double possessivedates from Chaucer’s time and is mostly used without being commented on by native speakers.
However, there are those who will tell you to avoid it, which you can easily do by rewriting:
Mabel’s dream has long been to win a baking contest.
But what if we want to keep that? belong to building, after all, is allowed? Let’s see if we can keep it in a single ownership structure:
Mabel’s dream has long been to win a baking contest.
The result is problematic in two ways. It’s a monotonous language—no native speakers speak like that. And it’s very muddled semantically: the phrase “dream about Mabel” carries the underlying connotation of “dream about Mabel”, distracting the reader from the intended meaning.
Possession vs Association
As we said before, the case of possessiveness, or possessiveness, is not just about possession; it can also indicate that someone or something controls or is associated with someone or something else. The double possessive, or double possessive, is used to separate the genitive from the other functions of the genitive. “Mabel’s dream” may prove possessive associative, but “Mabel’s dream” ensures that it is possessive in the workplace.
This becomes even more evident with the classical example of “painting”, first used by Joseph Priestly in the late 18th century. There is no denying the difference in meaning conveyed in “painting”. this is my friend’s” and “this picture of my friend”: the first picture is the picture in which the friend appears—an example of possessive associative, and the second is a picture belonging to friend—an example of possessive possession. The double possessive, aka the double possessive, is useful and can actually be used without having to worry about breaking grammar.
Before we leave this curiosity altogether, there’s one odd thing to work out. We said above that showing ownership with belong to usually used when it is an object of ownership, rather than a person or animal having title. However, dual possession / double possession, throws that out the window. We can say “Mabel’s dream”, but not “contest winner”. Turns out English only allows people and animals to have double possession, and insists that they use belong to do like that. Don’t blame us. We are just messengers.
Categories: Usage Notes
Source: vothisaucamau.edu.vn
