clausal possessives

[Dennis R. Preston]

I don't understand what's displaced. English places its possessive marker
at the end of the NP possessor (not the N). Otherwise you'd have such
horrors as "This is the woman's I used to date who knew my grandfather
hat." Yes, English is wonderful, but its possessives are hardly displaced.

dInIs

>On Thu, 19 Oct 2000 RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:
>
>> One of my former students, n ow a profesisonal journalist with a major
>>TRexas
>> newspaper, writes:
>>
>> <<this is my newest article. i'm just waiting for the people i wrote about's
>> family members to come kill me>>
>>
>> Isn't English a wonderful language!
>
>I love displaced 's. I hear it in people I talk with's speech all the
>time. :) For some reason it doesn't bother me at all.
>
>--- Steve K.


Dennis R. Preston
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736