Possessive pronoun

“ His sole rule supposes the pupil always to know when and why the possessive is proper, and only instructs him not to form it without the sign! It is this: "When a noun or a pronoun, preceding a participle used as a noun, is properly in the possessive case, the sign of possession should not be omitted."--School Gram., p. 121. All the examples put under this rule, are inappropriate: each will mislead the learner. Those which are called "Correct," are, I think erroneous; and those which are called "False Syntax," the adding of the possessive sign will not amend. ”

“ In the Mixteca language, the personal sign is the unchanged possessive pronoun. If the verb is governed by a noun in the third person, the possessive is dropped. It is left to the speaker to choose whether he designates the person, either by prefixing the personal pronoun or suffixing the possessive. The tense signs are prefixed syllables, but the [45] perfect and future signs are altogether different from those of the present, and materially alter the verbal stem. ”

“ Yet, since my life—and in the use, of the possessive pronoun here and elsewhere, let it signify also the life of my life-partner—is beyond the range of ordinary experience, since it is immune from the ferments which seethe and muddle the lives of the many, I am assured that a familiar record will not be deemed egotistical, I am scolded because I did not confess with greater zeal, I am bidden to my pen again. ”

“ How can we tell whether an adjective in -er is declined like līber or like pulcher? Why must we say nauta bonus and not nauta bona? Name the Latin possessive pronouns. How are they declined? With what does the possessive pronoun agree? When do we use tuus and when vester? Why is suus called a reflexive possessive? What is the non-reflexive possessive of the third person? When are possessives omitted? What four uses of the ablative case are covered by the relations expressed in English by with? Give an illustration in Latin of the ablative of manner; of the ablative of cause ”

“ The possessive pronoun can properly be used only to indicate possession or appurtenance. “The midst” of a company or society is not a thing belonging or appurtenant to the company, or to the individuals composing it. ”

“ Do not make such a pronoun, except in the phrase such as. He has fruits of all sorts and his prices for such are unreasonable, is the sort of use to be avoided.
Distinguish between its, possessive pronoun, and it's, contraction of it is.
Use either or neither only of two, any one or none of more than two, as: In one group are Russia, Germany and Austria, in another France and England. Any one of the first group acting with either of the second could determine the question. ”

“ It is noticeable that our instructor as a rule endeavours to make the possessive pronoun agree with the substantive in number and gender in orthodox Portuguese fashion, and that like a true grammatical patriot he insists upon the substantive having the same gender as in his native tongue ”

“ That is, should the possessive case of a noun or pronoun always be used with the gerund to indicate the active agent? Closely scrutinizing these two sentences quoted, we might find a difference between them: saying that in the first one studying is a participle, and the meaning is, We heard of Brown, [who was] studying law; and that in the second, studying is a gerund, object of heard of, and modified by the possessive case as any other substantive would be. ”

“ Besides being used as demonstrative pronouns and adjectives the Latin demonstratives are regularly used for the personal pronoun he, she, it. As a personal pronoun, then, is would have the following meanings:
116. Comparison between suus and is. We learned above (§ 98. c) that suus is a reflexive possessive. When his, her (poss.) , its, their, do not refer to the subject of the sentence, we express his, her, its by eius, the genitive singular of is, ea, id ; and their by the genitive plural, using eōrum to refer to a masculine or neuter antecedent noun and eārum to refer to a feminine one. ”

“ The verbal noun in each of the above is dative case, governed by the preposition ag.
576. When the English present participle governs an objective case, the object if a noun will follow the verbal noun in Irish and will be in the genitive case.
577. If the object of the English present participle be a personal pronoun we cannot translate as in the above sentences, because the pronouns have no genitive case; hence instead of using the personal pronouns we must employ the possessive adjectives. Possessive adjectives must always precede the nouns which they qualify. ”

“ This obscure sound of the possessive pronoun your always takes place when it is used to signify any species of persons or things in an indeterminate sense. Thus Addison, speaking of those metaphors which professional men most commonly fall into, says, "Your men of business usually have recourse to such instances as are too mean and familiar." Spectator. No. 421.
Yourself, y2ur-s2elf′. s.
You, even you; ye, not others.
☞ The pronunciation of your in this word is a confirmation of the observations on the foregoing word. ”

“ This last differs in use from the pronoun себя, §21, in that a possessor of the first or second person who is the same as the subject is often expressed by the ordinary possessive adjective; thus, one always says он взял свою шляпу "he took his (own) hat," for он взял его шляпу means "he took his (the other man's) hat"; but one says indifferently я взял свою шляпу or я взял мою шляпу "I took my hat." ”

“ Did your father bring the boat to Harry? No, he brought it to —— of us.
7. —— of them did his (their) duty.
Change of Pronoun. [60] —In referring to the same person or thing a writer should not change from one pronoun to another.
The possessive of "one" is "one's" (not "his") , except in such expressions as "every one," "no one," "many a one." The reflexive is "one's self."
It is a common but serious fault to begin to write in the third person, and then to change to the first or second. ”

“ Where the nominative ends in a consonant, as in ais, a shell, the full possessive inflection is required, making nin dais-im, my shell. In the latter form the consonant d, is interposed between the pronoun and noun, and sounded with the noun, in conformity with a general rule. Where the nominative ends in the broad, in lieu177 of the long sound of a, as in ogimâ, a chief—the possessive is âm. The sound of i, in the third declension, is that of i in pin, and the sound of u, in the fifth declension, is that of u in bull. ”

“ POSSESSIVES.
297 The possessive pronouns consist of the possessive or genitive cases of the respective substantive pronouns, without the postposition ^|1_ viz.
his (remote) his (proximate) her or its (proximate) .her or its (do) , .our .their M fy F. (proximate) .our P _ .their -N. (do) sr8 their M> $ F. (remote) .your r63....; ........ their N. (do) his, her, its .their
298 These pronouns are indeclinable ; they are prefixed to nouns in the same manner 1 as the !#3&o adjectives, but without affixes of any kind ; thus* *r* ow*x> my house, -5T8^:) a955boex) their horses, &c. ”

“ When several nouns in the possessive case succeed each other, each showing possession of the same noun, it is only necessary to add the sign of the possessive to the last: as, He sells men, women, and children's shoes. ”

“ By a peculiarity of idiom the possessive sign is used with a noun in the objective; as, “This is a story of Lincoln’s,” “That is a letter of the President’s,” “A patient of Dr. Butler’s,” “A pupil of Professor Ludlam’s.”
In ordinary prose the custom of the best writers is to limit the use of the possessive chiefly to persons and personified objects; to time expressions, as, an hour’s delay, a moment’s thought ”

“ When self is added to the personal pronouns, as himself, myself, itself, themselves, &c. they are called compound personal pronouns, and are used in the nominative or objective case, but not in the possessive. ”

“ Double Possessives
“John and Mary’s sled,” means one sled belonging jointly to John and Mary. “John’s and Mary’s sleds” means that one sled belongs to John, the other to Mary.
“Men, women, and children’s shoes for sale here.” When several possessives connected by and refer to the same noun, the sign of the possessive is applied to the last one only.
When a disjunctive word or words are used, the sign must be annexed to each word; as, “These are Charles’s or James’s books.” ”

“ This gloss therefore I wholly disapprove, judging the position more tenable, to deny, if we consequently must, that either a phrase or a participle, as such, can consistently govern the possessive case. For whatever word or term gives rise to the direct relation of property, and is rightly made to govern the possessive case, ought in reason to be a noun—ought to be the name of some substance, quality, state, action, passion, being, or thing. ”

“ When we speak of a noun in the possessive case, we simply mean a person or thing placed under such circumstances as to become named as the possessor of something; and when we speak of a noun in the objective case, we only intend to express a person or thing standing in such a situation as to be, in some way or other, affected by the act of some other person or thing,—as "Henry teaches Charles." ”

“ If the plural does not end in s, the apostrophe and the s are both added+.
Write the possessive singular and the possessive plural of the following nouns, and place an appropriate noun after each.
Robin, friend, fly, hero, woman, bee, mouse, cuckoo, fox, ox, man, thief,
fairy, mosquito, wolf, shepherd, farmer, child, neighbor, cow.
Possession may be expressed also by the preposition of and the objective; as, the mosquito's bill = the bill of the mosquito.
The possessive sign ('s) is confined chiefly to the names of persons and animals. ”

“ No precise rule has ever been given to guide us in our choice between these two forms of the possessive case. Sometimes it is not material which form is employed; where, however, it is material—and it generally is—we must consider the thought we wish to express, and rely on our discrimination. ”

“ A majority of the best writers still conform to the old custom of placing the possessive with else.
“People were so ridiculous with their illusions, carrying their fool’s caps unawares, thinking their own lies opaque, while everybody else’s were transparent.”—George Eliot.
Some make a distinction by placing the possessive with else when the noun follows, and with somebody when the noun precedes; as, “This is somebody else’s pencil,” and “This pencil is somebody’s else.” ”

“ The possessives of the first and second persons sing., min, thin, have no plural inflexion, but the disjunctive form thyne pl. occurs, i. 168. On the other hand his, originally an uninflected form, has usually the plural hise, but sometimes his. The form hise is never a dissyllable.
The feminine possessive, 3rd pers., is hire or hir, freely interchanged and metrically equivalent. There is no question of a plural inflexion here, and we find ‘Hire Nase,’ ‘hire browes,’ ‘hir lockes,’ ‘Hire Necke,’ quite indifferently used, i. 1678 ff. ”

“ If this were expanded into the power which his Creator possesses, the word Creator would be the subject of the verb: hence it is called a subjective possessive.
61. This last-named possessive expresses a variety of relations. Possession in some sense is the most common. The kind of relation may usually be found by expanding the possessive into an equivalent phrase: for example, "Winter's rude tempests are gathering now" (i.e., tempests that winter is likely to have) ”

“ The plural of man is men,; the plural of boy is boys. The possessive of man is man’s; of men is men’s. The possessive of boy is boy’s; of boys is boys’. In the latter case we are obliged to place the apostrophe after the s in order to distinguish the possessive plural from the possessive singular. ”