 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
147
However there are some cases when the noun in the genitive case is not followed by the headword and then
it stands for the whole noun phrase. This is the so-called absolute genitive. It is used:
1. To avoid repetition:
Our house is better than Mary’s (than Mary’s house).
2. After the preposition of:
an old friend of my mother’s, that cousin of my husband’s.
3. To denote shops such as the butcher’s, the baker’s, the grocer’s, the chemist’s, or institutions, where the
genitive is usually a saint's name:
St Paul’s (Cathedral), St James’s (Palace),
or places of residence:
at Timothy’s, at Old Jolyon’s, at my uncle’s.
There are also cases (though rare) when a noun is modified by two successive nouns in the genitive case. It
is the so called double genitive, as in My mother’s father’s people. The first in such structures has as a rule the
meaning of possession (the father of my mother), while the second may either have the same meaning (the
people of my father) or other meanings as in: the boy's half-hour’s run.
Syntactical functions of the noun
§ 185. A noun may be used in the function of almost any part of the sentence, although its most typical
functions are those of the subject and the object. It may function as
1. Subject:
The ship got under way.
2. Predicative:
He was certainly the best hated man in the ship.
3. Object:
I gave him a pound. Twelve dollars are enough for the man.
4. Objective predicative:
I found him an excellent listener.
5. Attribute:
A dog is a man’s best friend.
6. Adverbial modifier (usually as part of a prepositional phrase):
High above the city, on a tall column, stood the statue of the Happy Prince.
THE ARTICLE
§ 186. The article is a form word that serves as a noun determiner. It is one of the main means of
conveying the idea of definiteness and indefiniteness.
There are two articles in English: the definite article the [?i:] and the indefinite article a [ei].
Definiteness suggests that the object presented by the following noun is individualized and singled
out from all the other objects of the same kind, whereas indefiniteness means a more general reference
to an object. Thus when saying The book is a historical novel or The boy has a dog or The telephone is out of
order, the speaker treats the objects book, boy, telephone as specific objects, while saying a dog, a historical
novel the speaker characterizes the objects in a more general way, pointing out what kind of novel the book is