x and them

[A. Maberry]

On Wed, 1 Mar 2000, Beverly Flanigan wrote:
>
> We used it in Minnesota regularly, but I understood it to be possessive, as
> in "We're going over to Christina's [place]."  And note that it could refer
> to a woman's as well as a man's place or family.

That's what I thought first and figured that that was pretty common. I
understood it to be a possessive too, as in:

We're going to Dave's [place].
Mike? He's one of Dave's [kids].

No problem here. But Peter mentioned that a colleague who he identified as
something of a feminist hated it. I don't see anything to object to in the
above usages since one could easily have used "Cathy's" or whomever's in
place of "Dave's". Perhaps the usage as Peter described it is *always*
confined to the possessive of the male of a household? Otherwise it's hard
for me to see much objection, unless one objects on aesthetic grounds,
which I suppose is possible.

Allen
maberry at u.washington.edu