Search results for 'tag:Numbers tag:Possessives' matching tags 'Numbers' and 'Possessives'

Re: Possesive pronoun

CalifJim — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 02:28:31 GMT

Huevos
Mister Micawber
are determiners
Just a terminology thing: CJ says possessive adjectives whereas you say determiners. What makes these determiners?

Possessive adjectives are just one class of determiners. Articles, demonstrative adjectives, numbers, and quantifiers are other classes of determiners.

my, his, ..., a, an, the, this, that, these, those, one, two, three, ..., some, all, every, many, ... are all determiners.

So there is no conflict between my focus on the possessive and adjectival properties and Mr. M.'s focus on the superclass called determiners.

(Technically, a determiner is not an adjective -- not a central case of "adjective" anyway (like red and round) -- so maybe 'possessive determiner' and 'demonstrative determiner' are better terms. It all depends on which author you read. They all have different preferences as regards terminology.)

Ballad, Porphyria's Lover, To His Coy Mistress and My Last Duchess

SamW — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 20:51:22 GMT

Basically, I have been set a piece of coursework: to compare the aforementioned poems. I am going for an A* piece at GCSE level, there is no particular question, just to compare the four poems. I have almost completed My Last Duchess, mentioning all the themes I can think of and reading the topics on here for extra guidance. However, I could do with some guidance on how to compare the four as a whole. I'd appreciate it if someone could help me out, heres the essay I have written thus far:

Love poetry can be manipulated to affect the reader in numerous ways; the reader can empathise with the poem, the reader can be inspired by the sentiment of the poem, the reader can attempt to emulate the actions of the characters, the consequences of reading a stirring love poem persist. One aspect that all love poetry has in common is the way in which it can engross the reader in its world and engage with their emotional side. They achieve this by using a number of devices and several genres are used to conjure up vastly varying types of emotions: anger, amorousness, longing, and disgust amongst others. One of the foremost genres is that of the dramatic monologue â in which a character delivers a speech explaining their feelings, actions or motives. I will be analysing three starkly differing dramatic monologues: âMy Last Duchessâ, âTo His Coy Mistressâ and âPorphyriaâs Loverâ. Another variation of love poetry is that of the ballad; a timeless art form that is significantly popular to this day. A ballad tells a dramatic story in a direct style, focussing on a single story; repetition is a particularly commonly used convention in ballads. Ballads are traditionally anonymous, and the poem I am analysing is no different: âBalladâ. âMy Last Duchessâ is written from the perspective of a duke who is on the verge of marrying the Countâs daughter and is conversing with the Countâs servant. His previous Duchess was murdered by the Duke himself and the speech could be interpreted as self-justification by the Duke as he attempts to defend his questionable philosophies. âBalladâ is a direct story told through the perspective of a young woman. The lady has fallen in love with a shepherd; unfortunately, it transpires that the man is dishonest. This is revealed when the shepherd impregnates the young woman and flees; his promises unfulfilled. The resolution is minimal at most, the female being left to contemplate suicide. The dramatic monologue has several different forms in itself; the two remaining poems showcase this perfectly. Despite the fact that they are completely different in theme, atmosphere and tempo, they retain the conventions of a dramatic monologue. âTo His Coy Mistressâ is a classic literary piece by Andrew Marvell. The poem is written through the eyes of a male, attempting to âswoonâ his prospective lady into falling for him and consequently, into bed. The male argues, then counter-balances his argument and then concludes, concluding that, surprisingly enough, she should go to bed with him. The last of the quartet is âPorphyriaâs Loverâ, the poem is told through the perspective of a madman sitting with his lover. Porphyria, the woman he loves, comes to his cottage and tells him she loves him. The madman wants to immortalise the moment forever, so he strangles her with her own hair. From the moment âMy Last Duchessâ begins, one can tell that the Duke is an incredibly possessive man. This is reinforced by the opening line, âThatâs my last Duchess painted on the wall.â This epitomises his attitude towards possessions of any kind. One could draw parallels with the overbearing Duke and Porphyriaâs lover, both extremely domineering and possessive. This is exemplified by the quote in âPorphyriaâs Loverâ, when the lover is on the verge of killing his woman, âThat moment she was mine, mine.â This epitomises the loverâs attitude, he is so desperate to own her that he kills her. Robert Browning conveys this obsessively possessive character by using repetition of the phrase, âmineâ. The theme of obsessive and possessive love on behalf of men is clearly at the forefront of Browningâs mind, portraying similar leading men in both of the poems. The Duke is speaking formally to a social inferior, as emphasised in this quote, âWillât please you sit and look at herâ¦Strangers like youâ¦â This insinuates that he is a polite, pleasant man who treats all social classes similarly hence making the revelation of him murdering his last Duchess all the more shocking. The domineering aspect of his character is re-enforced with the quote, âsince none puts by the curtain I have drawn for you, but I.â This embellishes the fact that he sees himself the only one worthy of certain duties. Furthermore, he is clearly happier with the portrait of his wife, âas if aliveâ than he was with the woman when she was living. He is such an authoritarian that anything that he cannot order or control, whether it is art or people, will suffer the consequences. The poem is organised into rhyming couplets, not dissimilar to âBalladâ and âTo His Coy Mistressâ. However, âPorphyriaâs Loverâ does not use rhyming couplets; this may be due to the fact that Browning was looking for an unpredictable rhythm to reflect the unpredictable storyline. The couplets are used in the relative poems to keep a steady sense of rhythm and to keep the stories moving along at a stable pace. Moreover, Iambic pentameter is used throughout the poem to keep the poem flowing as the readers discover the gradual revelation of the speakerâs true nature. As the poem proceeds, it becomes clearer that the Duke is the epitome of excessive, aristocratic pride. This is accentuated by the quote: âAs if she ranked my gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name with anybodyâs gift.â He is suggesting that she is inferior to him and should cherish the fact that she was allowed to marry him. The quote also carries connotations that he is extremely proud of his heritage and the last duchess didnât respect the name; she brought shame to the family. The line also emphasises how aloof he is, which is also supported by the ensuing line; âWhoâd stoop to blame?â He uses stoop to emphasis how lower class she was in comparison to himself. âMy Last Duchessâ uses archaic language, analogously to âBalladâ, as exemplified by the use of the phrase âforsoothâ (âHer wit to yours, forsooth, and made excuse). âBalladâ possesses a multitude of examples of such language using phrases such as âtheeâ, âthyâ and âthouâdstâ. The two poems use this anachronistic language to invoke different sentiments. âBalladâ uses antiquated language to emphasise the âtypical fairytaleâ aspect of the poem and to engage with the readers by evoking the style of older speech â it is aiming to retain the original essence of a poem. âMy Last Duchessâ uses archaism to accentuate the aloof aspect of the Dukeâs character. Despite the fact that the Duke has murdered the last Duchess, he clearly does not acknowledge, or perhaps understand, the direct consequences of his actions. This is implied heavily by the final three lines in which he points out another piece of art, a statue of Neptune â âNotice Neptune, thoughâ¦cast in bronze for me!â The exclamation mark confirms the fact that he is as proud of a statue and as excited of this Roman god as his wife. This implies that he does not realise the consequences of his actions, simply negating her as part of his collection. This sentiment is echoed in âPorphyriaâs Loverâ, in which the madman does not realise the corollary of the murder he has so harshly committed. This is supported by the phrase, âI propped her head up as before.â This statement conveys the fact that he does not recognise the significance of his actions; treating his dead love exactly the same as his living love. The two males in âTo His Coy Mistressâ and âMy Last Duchessâ may have vastly differing personalities but they both view women in a similar light. The duke and the seductive lover have a certain attitude towards women; they both see women as objects, the only difference being that they view these objects through different perspective. The Duke in âMy Last Duchessâ is a supercilious, impertinent man; his status and wealth meaning more to him than love as showcased by the line âWhoâd stoop to blame this sort of trifling?â He believes that the late Duchess was of a lower class, thus tainting their love, implying that he is more perturbed with lack of status than lack of love. He is a megalomaniac, who is jealous about his ex-wife not giving only him her attention. The speaker in "To His Coy Mistress" seems like a respectful man, the speaker is articulate - an important attribute considering he is attempting to seduce the woman. He uses his way of words to flatter her, but we then learn that he only wants her for pleasure rather than love; he adopts a false persona of love as another technique to lure her. This is exemplified by the change of tone in the first to second stanza, the second stanza assumes a threatening tenor â emphasising a void-like image to win his lady â âAnd yonder all before us lie deserts of vast eternityâ. This phrase epitomises the way in which the male attempts to manipulate the woman by conjuring up images on the topic of void if she was to reject his advances. The Duke patently feels that his last Duchess did not correspond with the expectations of an archetypal Duchess. An exemplary Duchess would be cold and calculating; avoiding affection like the plague. However, the Duchess did not, in the Dukeâs eyes, demonstrate these traits, as portrayed by this quote â âShe thanked men, - good! But thanked somehowâ¦as if she ranked my giftâ¦with anybodyâs gift.â The Duke is accusing the Duchess of being too affectionate, an attribute not welcome for a Duchess. Furthermore, the Duke surmises that the Duchess is too easily pleased, as showcased by this line in the poem â âToo easily impressed; she liked whateâer she looked on.â This illustrates (in the Dukeâs opinion) the fact that she is too âfriendlyâ and easy to please, particularly when dealing with males. However, it is extremely palpable that the Duchess is simply being friendly and the Duke is unable to understand his wifeâs warm nature. This attitude is reinforced when the Duke struggles to describe his wifeâs kind-hearted personality: âShe had a heart â how shall I say â too soon made glad?â This quote illustrates the fact that he cannot understand that aspect of his wifeâs personality; he expects much colder behaviour from his Duchess. Despite the fact that the Duke is, as he put it, âdisgustedâ with the Duchessâ behaviour. She is described as a lovely free being; freedom is portrayed in the quote: âshe liked whateâer she looked on, and her looks went everywhere.â This quote depicts the Duchess as an impulsive, free soul. However, the Duchessâ free spirit is juxtaposed by the restrictive nature of the Duke as rendered by âI choose never to stoop,â and âI gave commands.â This suggests that the Duke is attempting to restrict the Duchess from being her spontaneous self. It seems that he failed and due to his authoritarian nature, he decreed that she should be murdered. The Duchess is represented as a beautiful person, both physically so and by nature. She loved nature, as emphasised by her association with the imagery of a sunset, a âbough of cherriesâ and her âwhite muleâ. The Duchess is shown as physically attractive â âthe faint half-flush that dies along her throat,â â not dissimilarly to the ladies in âTo His Coy Mistressâ and âPorphyriaâs Loverâ. The woman is clearly beautiful in the seductive poem âTo His Coy Mistressâ as conveyed by the use of doting similes (âThou by the Indian Gangesâ side shouldst rubies find; I by the tide Of Humber would complain.â) He uses this imagery to compare her to an exotic river whereas he is an uninteresting English river. The technique is used to lavish praise upon the beautiful woman, portraying her as glamorous and beautiful; akin to the Ganges. âPorphyriaâs Loverâ uses a beautiful lady to emphasise the surprising (and brutal) nature of the death and juxtapose the madman thus creating a sense of paranoia on behalf of the lover. The gracious beauty of Porphyria is emphasised by the repetition of her âyellow hairâ and her âsmooth white shoulderâ. Beauty is used in the two murderous poems to juxtapose the leading men thus creating a sense of wonder. Splendour is used in âTo His Coy Mistressâ to intensify the efforts and give further cause to the leading manâs attempt to seduce the lady. Alliteration is used in âMy Last Duchessâ (âdropping of the daylight.â, âyour masterâs known munificenceâ) to maintain a rhythm and perhaps for the Duke to flaunt his eloquent speaking ability. The poem is written in heroic couplets with almost continuous enjambment; this technique gives the poem a conversational style â essential for creating a rapport between the reader and the Duke. Browning uses dramatic irony to illustrate the dukeâs manipulative and callous character towards the end of the poem, as he refers to the girl he wants to marry as âmy objectâ (the Duke does not realise how much he is revealing about his personality throughout not only this quote, but the whole poem).

The Duke is the epitome of possessive, arrogant egotism.

...and that is as far as I have got. Thanks in advance.

Sorry for the lack of paragraphs, when I copied and pasted the essay from word, it seemed to get rid of them.

Re: Possessive form when there are more than 2 words

Grammar Geek — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:43:07 GMT

Try this:

How many seconds do you want to allow for the maximum lenght of the alarm message for alarm number 5000?

Re: Possessive form when there are more than 2 words

pifoux2000 — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:47:42 GMT

Hello,

thank you for spending time to answer my question. Indeed the third one was also the best according to me.

This piece of text is actually talking about the recording process of an alarm message. I want to ask the user if he wants to set a maximum duration after which the recording process of the alarm message will stop.

Sorry for my poor english I hope you understand.... ;-)

So the user would get a message like:

"Do you want to set a maximum duration for the alarm message recording to '***' seconds for alarm number 5000 ?"

This sentence really sound strange to me now... can you correct it ? :))

Thanks a lot.

Re: many people

Clive — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 02:44:33 GMT

Hi,

what the differences between...

There are many people in Melbourne who want to become involved in doing something for the river.

http://150.theage.com.au/view_bestofarticle.asp?straction=update&inttype=1&intid=781
The above just means a large number of persons.

''Half a per cent in one hit would have done an extreme amount of damage to the stock market and many people's home loans.''

http://business.theage.com.au/stocks-down-on-rate-rise/20080304-1wok.html
It's the possessive form, ie the home loans of or belonging to many people.

Many peoples worry about losing their identity in the face of globalisation

http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/adieu-jeanpaul-adieu/2007/02/26/1172338542669.html

The quote continues as follows. Many peoples worry about losing their identity in the face of globalisation. But opinion polls show that few fret about it more than the French.

'A people ' can be used to refer to the citizens of a country, eg the French people, the Chinese people, the Italian people. These three examples together can be referred to as 'three peoples'. Thus, many peoples means 'the citizens of many countries. That's a common thing to speak of when you are discussing globalization.

and what does "get rid" mean?? If you get rid of your TV set, it means you no longer have it. You may for example have given it to a friend, or put it in the garbage.

Best wishes, Clive

Re: "as ... as" expression

Feebs11 — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 18:23:54 GMT

Believer
Hi,

I have difficulty figuring out how to write the word that follows something like an 'as much/twice as something' or 'twice as something' expression -- should it be in a 'plain' form or in the possessive? I feel some people are unable to correctly the right situations for either usage.

This year's figure for sales is twice the number as last year (or last year's)

Instinctively, I feel it should be 'last year's' because I think we are talking about numbers -- last year's number and this year's number that is; but I feel in a lot of cases, a sentence without the apostrophe is accepted. Why? How about this?

The year's membership figure is as many as last year (or last year's), maybe more.

"This year's sales figures are double those for last year."

"This year's figure for total sales is double that of last year's sales."

"This year's membership is the same as last year's [membership], perhaps slightly higher."

"as ... as" expression

Believer — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 18:01:22 GMT

Hi,

I have difficulty figuring out how to write the word that follows something like an 'as much/twice as something' or 'twice as something' expression -- should it be in a 'plain' form or in the possessive? I feel some people are unable to correctly the right situations for either usage.

This year's figure for sales is twice the number as last year (or last year's)

Instinctively, I feel it should be 'last year's' because I think we are talking about numbers -- last year's number and this year's number that is; but I feel in a lot of cases, a sentence without the apostrophe is accepted. Why? How about this?

The year's membership figure is as many as last year (or last year's), maybe more.

Re: Me or my?

Monalisatuan — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 01:51:13 GMT

Hi,

As far as I know , both possessive and accusative forms can be used after a number of adjectives followed by prepositions , e.g. be bored with , be happy about , be interested in , be keen on , be concerned about, be afraid of etc.The possessive forms ( our,your ,,,) are formal and the accusative forms (us ,you..) are informal.

I am not sure of his/him agreeing

I'm surprised at your/you not having noticed .

Best wishes

Re: the phone number of vs for

CalifJim — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 02:52:55 GMT

I think I always use for, especially for places in general, although of would not be wrong:

What's the phone number for [the police / the library / the nearest pizza place / ...] ?

For a specific person, I would not use of, but the possessive:

<>What's [your /his / John's / Mrs. Sanger's / your brother's] phone number?

Re: 'most vs. almost

Anonymous — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 02:10:35 GMT

Here's an interesting article with regards to the confusion amongst Japanese learners of English:

Almost a Problem...

In Whatâs in a Word? In Japan Currents, July 1997: http://www.trussel.com/jap/almost.htm

I'm often struck by errors in non-native English which arise from the confusion of the words 'most,' 'almost' and 'mostly.' Some cause unexpected ambiguity, when I find that I can't quite guess what the speaker is trying to say. Others often convey strikingly comical images. Both may provide potentially useful examples for revealing the native speaker's sense of these words.

When I hear that "almost my friends are going to Hokkaido," assuming that the error is with the use of 'almost,' I'm faced with the dilemma of whether she means that most of her friends are going, though some aren't, or that they'll spend their time mostly in Hokkaido, but will also go to some other places. What should have been 'most of' or 'mostly' came out as 'almost,' and left me up in the air.

In the case of errors like "Almost Americans are fat," the intended meaning is not elusive -- the target is no doubt "Most Americans are fat." "Americans are mostly fat," while grammatically possible, is not so likely: the human body is mostly water. If I hear that "the water is mostly hot enough for tea," which should be 'almost hot enough,' it doesn't confuse me so much as conjure up a humorous image -- I find myself imagining little pieces of hot-enough water floating among some not-yet-hot-enough ones.

Historically, both "almost" and 'most' date back nearly 1,000 years in English, with 'almost' being formed as a compound of all+most. There was apparently no word 'mostly' until late in the 16th century, and until that time the meaning of 'almost' included the idea 'mostly all, nearly all' which is quite close to the way it's often used in error by non-native speakers today. With the development of "mostly," that sense correspondingly disappeared from 'almost,' leaving it with only the slightly negative implication of "very nearly," "all but," "a little less than (completely)."

'Almost' seems to correspond in meaning and to a large extent in usage, to the Japanese [hotondo], and this is probably the root of the problem for Japanese speakers of English: ideas which are expressed with [hotondo] may appear as 'most (of)', 'almost' or 'mostly' in English, a one-to-three (or four) correspondence bound to result in confusion.

Among these three "confusables," the use of 'most (of)' seems the least likely to cause trouble, being so close to [hotondo no], though in fact less experienced speakers may be bothered by when to use the 'of.' It only appears when the modified noun is preceded by 'the, these, those, a possessive form, or before the pronoun 'them.' So, "most boys," or "most of the boys," but never "most of boys" or "most the boys."

Considering the usage of 'almost,' it appears as the first choice for numerical expressions like "That lesson cost me almost a hundred dollars," "They first settled here almost 75 years ago," or "Almost 1000 people showed up at the opening." These suggest a basic idea of modifying something complete, perfect, 100%, to make it less so. So when 'almost' is used with words like "finished, done, dressed, built, written" etc., or "ready, full, empty, dead..." it adds that meaning of "not quite, nearly." "Almost late" isn't late, and "almost empty" isn't empty. So, "I was almost asleep," "the vacation is almost over," or the old song title, "It's almost like being in love." 'Almost' appears frequently with time expressions like "I left there almost three hours ago," "We'd better leave; it's almost morning," or "I can't believe it's the 20th -- it's almost Christmas already!" with the similar sense of 'not yet.'

With 'mostly,' the historical 'newcomer' of the group, the idea of 'for the most part' shows up when it is used for expressing quantities without numbers, especially when in some sense they can be counted, like "I don't know why they call this beef stew -- it's mostly potatoes," or "The students in that school are mostly Chinese." English and Japanese seem to part ways here. "I'm mostly at home on weekends" might be a likely candidate for [hotondo] in Japanese, but it's not a case where "almost" could be used in English, unless it were as "almost always." In "That garden is mostly weeds," or "Those boys are mostly from the neighboring town," English isn't aiming for the "less-than complete" idea, and so "almost" doesn't fit.

It seems that the English 'almost' emphasizes 'less-than-ness' while the Japanese [hotondo] focuses on 'mostly-ness.' Of course these are two sides of the same coin, but there are clearly some times when they don't match well enough for 'translation' English to succeed. Like most areas of language fluency, it's an area where we have to strive to somehow get in touch with the spirit of the language, and put the dictionaries aside.

Stephen Trussel

Interestingly, in a short article on Correct American Usage, Russell (1940:431-2) criticises Strattonâs description of good usage:

âAlmost and most,â he writes, âdo not mean the same things, though from the numbers of supposedly educated writers and speakers who use the shorter most incorrectly for the longer almost, one would almost believe that the distinction has disappeared.â Again, the author notes that advertisement should eb accented on vert, not tise, even though âPractice in this country seems to be about evenly divided.â Obviously the philosophy of language implied in these two articles may seriously affect any judgment the author makes on usage.

I just happen to be looking into this at the moment ... probably more info but hey ...

Cheers,

Phil Brown
Tokyo