In praise of linguistic innovation and correct plurals

[R. M. Cleminson]

----- Originálna správa -----
Odosielateľ: "John Dunn" <j.dunn at SLAVONIC.ARTS.GLA.AC.UK>
Komu: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Dátum: piatok, október 8, 2010 05:22:08
Predmet: Re: [SEELANGS] In praise of linguistic innovation and correct plurals


Genitive plural forms must be extremely rare, but I suppose the same rule would apply:
My brother-in-laws' jobs prevent them from attending the wedding.

I would have thought not.  Certainly I think what I would say would be:

My brothers-in-law's jobs prevent them from attending the wedding.

A sample of one native speaker doesn't prove much, but this is in accord with the rule that a plural ending in something other than s has genitive in 's (children's), and also with the tendency to add 's to noun phrases (the King of Spain's daughter).  Moreover, there seems to be a parallel with the phenomenon that started this thread, i.e. between the tendency to treat noun-phrases as if they were nouns.  Is this another example of growing analyticity in Russian?
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