PSAT Glitch

[Baker, John]

        Was this really an accepted rule of traditional grammar, or merely one featured in a few idiosyncratic textbooks?  Other than Kevin Keegan, is there anyone who has ever applied this "rule"?  Writers of some distinction seem to do without it:

        "And Joseph's master took him, and put him into the prison, a place where the king's prisoners were bound: and he was there in the prison."  Genesis 39:20 (KJV)

        "Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must come; make her laugh at that."  Hamlet act v sc. i

        "I gesse is a favourite expression of Chaucer's, and the sense he sometimes gives it is very finely distinguished from the regular Yankee use."  Fowler & Fowler, The King's English (Bartleby edition)

        "The writer's colleagues in the Department of English in Cornell University have greatly helped him in the preparation of his manuscript."  Strunk, The Elements of Style (Bartleby edition)

        "Lowth's approach was strictly prescriptive; he meant to improve and correct, not describe."  Merriam-Webster Dictionary of English Usage 8a

        There does not appear to be any reason for a rule against genitive pronominal antecedents.  In none of these examples is there any confusion or awkwardness, and frequently a sentence with a genitive pronominal antecedent cannot be recast without making it worse.

John Baker


-----Original Message-----
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Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2003 1:43 AM
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Subject: Re: PSAT Glitch


I can remember a rule from traditional grammar, which stated that pronouns
replace nouns, which, are, generally, in the nominative/accusative/dative
case.  Possessive words, including nouns that end in apostrophe s, are in the
genitive case.  Thus, according to traditional grammar, the sentence is
incorrect since "Toni Morrison's" is
genitive and clearly not a candidate for antecedent of the pronoun, "her."