In praise of linguistic innovation and correct plurals

[Paul B. Gallagher]

R. M. Cleminson wrote:

> ----- Originálna správa -----
> Odosielateľ: "John Dunn"<j.dunn at SLAVONIC.ARTS.GLA.AC.UK>
>...
>
>> 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?

In theory, the possessive /ought/ to go on the head noun, but in 
practice, this is not how Americans speak. We attach the possessive to 
the NP, not to the head noun:

The [mother-of-pearl]'s luster really makes the piece shine.
Not: *The [mother]'s-of-pearl luster...

The plural, however, usually still goes on the head noun where it "belongs":
	mothers-in-law, rarely ?mother-in-laws

So the possessive plural would be "[mothers-in-law]'s," as you say.

In this sense, the English possessive is more analytical than the 
plural; it functions like the clitic particles in Japanese and Korean.

Compare the agentive nominalizing suffix "-er":
	a quicker picker-upper
where people are still confused as to whether to attach it to the head 
verb or the VP, so they do both.


I'm not concerned about "growing analyticity" in Russian. Many languages 
have a process whereby stock phrases evolve through frozen forms to 
become compounds, and once they do, the compound is treated as a single 
unit even if we can still recognize the parts. The pattern we're seeing 
with деньрожденье does not extend beyond a very few nascent compounds; 
the N[...]-N[gen.] construction is still alive and well.

-- 
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

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