and still they come (was Re: PSAT Glitch)

[Scott Sadowsky]

On 2003-05-22 23:15, Arnold Zwicky wrote the following:

>i tried to point out to him that i was not just piling crap on
>prescriptivists (i said this more gently), but was trying to make a
>serious point.

Both are laudable goals.


>  "Bush's irresponsible tax cuts, combined with his costly overseas
>   aspirations..."

Hm.... Aside from its stylistic awkwardness, would those who find the above
construction "incorrect" feel the same way if we used the Romance-style
possessive here instead of the Germanic one?

         "The irresponsible tax cuts of Bush, combined
         with his costly overseas aspirations..."

I can't help but feel that those who oppose the construction in your
example are fixating on the ' + s and somehow figuring that it must be
radically transforming the noun it's attached to.  But what's a little
clitic between friends?

Likewise, if we consider the ' + s to be a case-marking morpheme, the
tempest also seems to subside.  Who would possibly object to the following?

         "His irresponsible tax cuts, combined with his
         costly overseas aspirations..."

This is relevant because the -s of "his" can be considered to be the same
morpheme as the -s of "Bush's" (the apostrophe is a mere orthographical
convention which English once did without, and which German still hasn't
found necessary).

Finally, on the gut level, I just can't get myself to hear these types of
constructions as even remotely ungrammatical.  They flow into my ear and on
to my brain with utter smoothness.  So to speak.

Cheers,
Scott