clausal possessives

P2052 at AOL.COM P2052 at AOL.COM
Thu Oct 19 19:03:36 UTC 2000


Most folks I know who try to write or utter these "clausal possessives" make
a mess out of them, throwing the -'s anywhere.  Personally (and for the sake
of clarity), I would prefer "I'm just waiting to be killed by the family
members of the folks whom I wrote about" or "I'm just waiting for the family
members of the folks I wrote about to come kill me."  And the end preposition
on the former "proves" that I'm not a prescriptivist!       PAT



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