Possessive

“ An English writer says: "In such phrases as anybody else, and the like, else is often put in the possessive case; as, 'anybody else's servant'; and some grammarians defend this use of the possessive case, arguing that somebody else is a compound noun." It is better grammar and more euphonious to consider else as being an adjective, and to form the possessive by adding the apostrophe and s to the word that else qualifies; thus, anybody's else, nobody's else, somebody's else. ”

“ 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 ”

“ It is undeniable that the possessive instinct does accompany both these emotions and we are compelled to recognize that, whenever or wherever it appears, it is the expression of the direct opposite of love. ”

“ 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) ”

“ 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 best life is that in which creative impulses play the largest part and possessive impulses the smallest. The best institutions are those which produce the greatest possible creativeness and the least possessiveness compatible with self-preservation. Possessiveness may be defensive or aggressive: in the criminal law it is defensive, and in criminals it is aggressive. It may perhaps be admitted that the criminal law is less abominable than the criminal, and that defensive possessiveness is unavoidable so long as aggressive possessiveness exists. ”

“ The possessives agree with the name of the thing possessed in gender, number, and case. Compare the English and Latin in
Observe that suum agrees with puerum, and is unaffected by the gender of Sextus or Julia.
b. When your, yours, refers to one person, use tuus; when to more than one, vester; as,
c. Suus is a reflexive possessive, that is, it usually stands in the predicate and regularly refers back to the subject. Thus, Vir suōs servōs vocat means The man calls his (own) slaves. Here his (suōs) refers to man (vir) , and could not refer to any one else. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Many a common reader will wonder, who can have been ignorant enough to deny it. "The learned and sagacious Wallis, to whom every English grammarian owes a tribute of reverence, calls this modification of the noun an adjective possessive; I think, with no more propriety than he might have applied the same to the Latin genitive."--Dr. Johnson's Gram., p. 5. Brightland also, who gave to adjectives the name of qualities, included all possessives among them, calling them "Possessive Qualities, or Qualities of Possession."--Brightland's Gram., p. ”

“ And unlearned people may be excused for deducing that the subject of the gerund can be used at pleasure without the possessive sign, while the learned comfort themselves with the fused-participle theory. ”

“ 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.” ”

“ A possessor is genitive: книга моего брата "my brother's book," его книга "his book"; as in English, this includes an object whose part is named: лицо моего брата "my brother's face"; ножки стола "the legs of the table." The genitive forms of the personal pronouns (§21) are not used in this way; instead there are possessive adjectives (§15) : моя книга "my book," он взял свою книгу "he took his (own) book," but, with g, он взял его книгу "he took his (another man's) book." ”

“ I am not generalizing, but possessiveness is the most important element. The basis of relationships is: "What do I get out of the relationship?" That is the basis of all human relationships. As long as I can get what I want the relationships last. ”

“ Dear, a pleasant adjective—my, a pronoun of possession, implying that the being spoken of is one's very own,—one's sole, sacred, personal property, as with natural selfishness one would wish to hold the thing most precious. My dear;—a satisfactory total. I rather object to “dearest” as a word implying comparison, and therefore never to be used where comparison should not and could not exist. Witness, “dearest mother,” or “dearest wife,” as if a man had a plurality of mothers and wives, out of whom he chose the one he loved best. ”

“ The boy curses you from his heart, and believes himself your legal son and heir, for I have shown him a paper which proves to him that your marriage with his mother was legal. He joins me heart and hand, and as soon as our business is ended here, he will return and try to establish his claim to your name and fortune, which, you perceive, will be a very easy matter to do with the proofs he has in his hands. Do you not think it will be a proud day for your brilliant boy when he discovers his name and honor are claimed by another, and believes himself to be only a child of shame? ”

“ Look into your heart of hearts and ask yourself if I am a dearer possession now that you know that, come good or ill, with you or apart from you, in love or in anger, I hold myself yours and no other man’s. ”

“ Do you think that I will take a step that shall look like robbing my child of his honest name,—that will seem to imply a doubt that he is not his own father's honest boy,—that he is not a fitting heir to the property which his forefathers have owned so long? ”

“ The disposition of a family property, even though it be one so small as mine, is, to my thinking, a matter which a man should not make in accordance with his own caprices,—or even with his own affections. ”

“ Do you, my son, and you, my daughter, in default of him, pledge yourselves to register in all sincerity the deeds and events of your own lives, be they just or unjust, praiseworthy or blamable, to the end that the day when you depart from this existence to another, the narrative of your own life may increase our family chronicles, and that the inexorable sense of justice of our descendants may praise or condemn our memory, according as we shall have deserved? ”

“ What feelings, what wishes might be supposed to actuate a husband and a father, having so little to bestow on a wife and child he was about to leave behind him? His affections would prompt him to give something to both. ”

“ Are you, indeed, obliged by a physical or moral necessity, to marry this person, because he is an inmate of your father’s household, or because you were both born in the same village, or because he has something in his countenance that tells you,—before a word has been exchanged between you,—that he must be your lover, and your husband? The picture needs but be presented one moment before a calm, dispassionate eye, to force on us the conviction that, if in any human transaction we are free to accept, and free to reject the offers of another, we are clearly so in this. ”

“ You must, continually and every moment, see clearly into each other's bosom. Even when one of you has committed a fault, wait not an instant, but confess it freely—let it cost tears, but confess it. And as you keep nothing secret from each other, so, on the contrary, preserve the privacies of your house, marriage state and heart, from father, mother, sister, brother, aunt, and all the world. ”

“ Let it be observed that in thus allowing the wife the possession of her own person, we are giving her only what her husband possesses, and that her possession of herself is of vastly more moment to her than his own liberty to him. ”

“ Why a parent, or one who loves another, and wishes to use his own property in securing the object of his affection, as far as property can do it, from the ills of life, the vicissitudes of fortune, and even his own improvidence, or incapacity for self-protection, should not be permitted to do so, is not readily perceived. ”

“ She recalled the happy days of her childhood, before her father, by the extraordinary and most unexpected bequest of a distant relative, became possessed of property to what extent she could form no idea. She knew that this relative had quarrelled with the heir-at-law, and left all to one he had never seen. ”

“ Do not expect me to describe what is indescribable—my bitter experience, my pain and anger, my remorse, forlornness. His father—no, he is not worthy of he name of father; my husband, yet not my husband; a man, and not a man ”

“ When there is a possessor, there is something possessed. 203 The preposition, therefore, which marks the relation between the possessor and the possessed, stands ambiguously between the active and the passive power. It, therefore, partakes more of the active or the passive signification, according to the position of the words which it is employed to connect. ”

“ Such is human nature, at least my share of it;—though I shall think better of myself, if I have sense to stop now. If I have a wife, and that wife has a son—by any body—I will bring up mine heir in the most anti-poetical way—make him a lawyer, or a pirate, or—any thing. ”

“ Have you been saving more than one life?”
“Not more than one—a good deal less than one. Don’t let us get into a sentimental strain, pater. You are the chartered—ah, the chartered sentimentalist of the family. ”

“ These excessive powers over life imply an absolute authority over the person and property. The husband could lend his wife to a friend, [3] or choose a husband for his daughter and a wife for his son. ”

“ Can the mother ever destroy the relation which exists between herself and her child? Can the father annul the relation which exists between himself and his child? Then, can the father and mother annul the relation which exists between themselves, the parents of the child? ”

“ Possession (here the author follows Paulus and Labeo in the Digest) is as when one’s feet are set upon a thing, when body naturally rests on body. To acquire possession is to begin to possess. Herein one considers both the fact and the right. The fact arises through ourselves or our representative. ”

“ Love and trust of the child for the mother who feeds it, nurses, cherishes and pets it,—love of the man for his wife, regarded as the going out towards another's personality,—love for offspring, care for it,—love for kinsfolk, etc. The egoistic instincts owe their origin to the desire for exclusive possession of all that surrounds love, the desire to possess the mother exclusively, in opposition to the father and the brothers and sisters, the desire to have a woman for himself alone, the desire to possess exclusively ornaments, clothing, etc. ”

“ The intent to possess is crucial. Thus a ring put in the hand of a sleeper is not possessed for lack of intent on his part. You possess naturally when with mind and body (yours or another’s who represents you) you hold or sit upon with intent to possess. Corporeal things you properly possess, and acquire possession of, by your own or your agent’s hand. In the same manner you retain. Incorporeal things cannot be possessed properly speaking, but the civil law accords a quasi possession of them. ”