P + "of"

[Laurence Horn]

At 6:58 PM -0400 5/30/06, Wilson Gray wrote:
>Sounds fine to me, too.
>
>-Wilson
>
>
>On 5/30/06, sagehen <sagehen at westelcom.com> wrote:
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>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Poster:       sagehen <sagehen at WESTELCOM.COM>
>>Subject:      P + "of"
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>>
>>This discussion reminds me that possessive "of" probably should, but
>>doesn't, in my own usage, obviate  a following  "___'s"  (e.g., "it was one
>>of those friends / of Pete's/ that..........").  This could be recast in
>>several diffrent ways, but it seems perfectly normal to me, in spite of the
>>redundancy.
>>AM

Bolinger's generalization comes into play here too.  "a book of
Pete's" =/= "a book of Pete", and of course "a book of me/you" is
impossible alongside "a book of mine/yours".  I suspect arnold has
thought long and hard (if not viagrously) about minimal pairs based
on single vs. double possessives.

LH

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