genitive

Hi everybody,

Sorry to ask the question again: if we say "The King of England" it's because we're talking about a title but we have to say "The King's English" it's because we're talking about a particular dialect that is spoken by a particular person, which makes both "concepts" closely related? 

See you

Hi,

In Great Britain, nowadays, there is no person who speaks the King's English.

How about the Queen? (Or perhaps she is ruled out on the grounds of gender?)

Clive

Hela wrote:

PS: Please do not forget to answer my previous question: Dear MrP, why should we write "Bill Gates' achievements" and not "Bill Gates's achievements" and still pronounce /geitsiz/? Is it the same for "James' house" (or "James's house")?

Hello Hela

I would take the terminal s in "Gates's" and "James's" as optional. For instance, the park in London is usually styled "St James's Park"; but the football ground in Newcastle is "St James' Park".

Where a proper noun ends with an "-iz" sound, though, or in Classical/Biblical names, most people avoid the terminal s.

MrP

Hello Hela

Yes, you have to add the 's to "Tess". It seems that we may only leave off the s if the terminal sound is z:

1. Loch Ness's other monster.

2. Black Bess's younger sister.

3. The princess's pillow.

But:

4. Jones' house/Jones's house.

You might see or hear "Sophocles's" or "Socrates's"; and you would be a little more likely to see/hear "Marcus Aurelius's"; but the consensus seems to be that where a classical name refers to a classical character, you avoid the "apostrophe-s".

Perhaps it's a little too Germanic to sit happily with a Greek or Latin (or Hebrew) name. Though when a name is now an accepted English forename, the genitive seems more acceptable, e.g. "Marcus's", in reference to a modern person.

MrP