[Ads-l] Dangling possessive

[Paul A Johnston]

I use tnat all the time.  From 1983, referring to Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street"--"Hugh's got the sax player on that;'s alnum."  My Scottish wife thought that was amazing.  I call it a delayed possessive.
________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, October 6, 2022 4:08 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Dangling possessive

Attention: This email is from outside Western Michigan University. Use caution when opening links and attachments.

---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Dangling possessive
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Maybe not, but "The woman I'm engaged to's brother" isn't so unlikely in
speech, although probably it would get edited out of prose. Or even "the
possessive construction I'm working on's idiosyncrasies"



On Thu, Oct 6, 2022 at 3:25 PM Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:

> What if the last word of the phrase didn't happen to be a noun?
>
> Replace "A Republican gubernatorial candidate
> in Colorado" with "A Republican gubernatorial candidate despite what the
> party is up to". I don't think it works.
>
> On Thu, Oct 6, 2022, 1:16 PM Andy Bach <afbach at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Doesn't it work? Say if you replace "A Republican gubernatorial candidate
> > in Colorado" with "Bill" so
> >  "Bill's claims that students are dressing up as cats and other furry
> > animals has been widely denied by a selection of school districts in the
> > state."
> >
> > though I guess it'd be "have been"
> >
> > On Thu, Oct 6, 2022 at 8:39 AM Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > > It does reflect how one speaks, if not how one writes.
> > >
> > > On Thu, Oct 6, 2022, 12:51 AM victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > > I was surprised when I read the first graf of this story. It's easy
> to
> > > see
> > > > where the structural defect came from but proofreaders failed to
> catch
> > > it.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > >
> >
> https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.independent.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Famericas%2Fus-politics%2Fheidi-ganahl-colorado-furries-identify-b2196410.html%3Famp&data=05%7C01%7Cpaul.johnston%40WMICH.EDU%7C6f68acab51b1411cf14908daa7d685ee%7C257622517aa94c72905f39bf026a8a84%7C0%7C0%7C638006837057220752%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=gGP0aYXpOfDrp%2BWG7BG87NhoRYetCzKHwCOjpO%2BMCy8%3D&reserved=0
> > > >
> > > > A Republican gubernatorial candidate in Colorado's claims that
> students
> > > are
> > > > dressing up as cats and other furry animals has been widely denied
> by a
> > > > selection of school districts in the state.
> > > >
> > > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > > The American Dialect Society - https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.americandialect.org%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cpaul.johnston%40WMICH.EDU%7C6f68acab51b1411cf14908daa7d685ee%7C257622517aa94c72905f39bf026a8a84%7C0%7C0%7C638006837057220752%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=xcTQWUptgrkKLjPLyLmsFJ4p%2B%2BlD68UOnd5X0RQsmcM%3D&reserved=0
> > > >
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > The American Dialect Society - https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.americandialect.org%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cpaul.johnston%40WMICH.EDU%7C6f68acab51b1411cf14908daa7d685ee%7C257622517aa94c72905f39bf026a8a84%7C0%7C0%7C638006837057220752%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=xcTQWUptgrkKLjPLyLmsFJ4p%2B%2BlD68UOnd5X0RQsmcM%3D&reserved=0
> > >
> >
> >
> > --
> >
> > a
> >
> > Andy Bach,
> > afbach at gmail.com
> > 608 658-1890 cell
> > 608 261-5738 wk
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.americandialect.org%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cpaul.johnston%40WMICH.EDU%7C6f68acab51b1411cf14908daa7d685ee%7C257622517aa94c72905f39bf026a8a84%7C0%7C0%7C638006837057220752%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=xcTQWUptgrkKLjPLyLmsFJ4p%2B%2BlD68UOnd5X0RQsmcM%3D&reserved=0
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.americandialect.org%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cpaul.johnston%40WMICH.EDU%7C6f68acab51b1411cf14908daa7d685ee%7C257622517aa94c72905f39bf026a8a84%7C0%7C0%7C638006837057220752%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=xcTQWUptgrkKLjPLyLmsFJ4p%2B%2BlD68UOnd5X0RQsmcM%3D&reserved=0
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.americandialect.org%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cpaul.johnston%40WMICH.EDU%7C6f68acab51b1411cf14908daa7d685ee%7C257622517aa94c72905f39bf026a8a84%7C0%7C0%7C638006837057220752%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=xcTQWUptgrkKLjPLyLmsFJ4p%2B%2BlD68UOnd5X0RQsmcM%3D&reserved=0

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org