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This study examines the factors influencing the choice between the s-genitive and the of-genitive in English, with a focus on animacy, topicality, and possessive relation. The study includes an elicitation experiment with passages based on modern novels.
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Aspects of iconicity and economy in the choice between the s-genitive and the of-genitive in English Anette Rosenbach Mondorf. B. &G.Rohdenburg (eds.) Determinants of Grammatical Variation in English, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter
Aims and overall Method • Isolate several factors and their interaction • Predict context of occurrence • Offer diachronic perspective • Elicitation study with passages based on modern novels
Outline • Scope of the study and details of method • Results • Explanation offered
Choice contexts versus categorical contexts Meaning:Possessive possessor is full NP The whole construction is definite of ‘s
Comparable contexts within the choice contexts • Possessor not ending in -s, -z.-th ==> • Possessor singular • Non-complex, non-branching possessum (one modifier allowed • Non-complex, non-branching possessor (one modifier allowed • Non recursive possessor • Stylistic context: novels
Factors studied • Animacy of possessor • Topicality of possessor • Possessive relation: ‘prototypicality’
Making factors operational: Animacy • Positive: +human, no proper nouns (too topical) (==> words like ‘girl, mother, …) • Negative: - human, no proper nouns (too topical), no geographical or temporal nouns (==> concrete nouns) Question: why are temporal and geographical nouns? Because we know that they occur often with ‘s genitives! Fine but whatever explanation we get to, ignores those too.
Making factors operational: topicality • Given <--> new • Positive: +referential, second mention, definite expression • Negative:+referential, first mention, indefinite expression Question: what is exactly first mention in ‘a girl’s future’? The proposal looks only at the topicality of the possessor.
Making factors operational: prototypicality It is characteristic of the possessor to possess the possessum • Positive: • for animate possessors: inalienable possession: • body parts, kinship terms, permanent ownership • for inanimate possessors: part/whole • Negative: • for animate possessors: states, abstract possession • for inanimate possessors: everything that is not part/whole
Experiment • 56 British, 48 American native speakers • Task: choose one of the constructions in the context of a small text passage adapted from a novel, e.g. • A helicopter waited on the nearby grass like a sleeping insect, its pilot standing outside with Marino. Whit, a perfect specimen of male fitness in a black flight suit, opened [the helicopter’s doors/doors of the helicopter] to help us board. (adapted from P. Cornwell, 1994. The Body Farm) • Conditions: given the three variables with + and - value with have eight conditions; at least 10 items per condition
The boy’s eyes The mother’s future A girl’s face A woman’s shadow The chair’s frame The bag’s contents A lorry’s wheels A car’s fumes
Statistical significance • Chi-square P<0.01 • Positive for all except the last two conditions • American results: similar but the variation in prototypicality is not significant for the +animate condition either
Significance • Younger subjects use more s-genitives in the -animate conditions than older ones (chi-square p<0.001)
British (blue) versus American (red) subjects for +/- animate (1,2), +/-topical(4,5), +/- prototypical(7,8)
Significance • Only the -animate conditions are significant with the American subjects using the s-genitive more with -animate possessors (chi-square p<0.001) • In fact the age group is the primary factor and the difference between the British and American is secondary, so Americans are more advanced in this change.
Summary • The three isolated factors are significant • Animacy>topicality>possessive relation • Change: more use of -s genitive with -animates, starting with American speakers spreading to younger British speakers • This change has been notes already in 1920 but in general as occurring with temporal and geographic nouns which were excluded from this study.
Explanations: iconicity • Word order principle: concepts are serialized in the order in which they come to the mind, animates and topics are more accessible, come earlier • This seems to be a universal principle as far as animates are concerned but depends on language typology wrt topicality • Principle of conceptual distance: of-genitive less bounded that s-genitive => used in cases where the possessors and possessions are less closely related
Explanations: economy • Observations about longer term change: • S-genitive: decline during Middle English period • Increase between 15 and early 17th century • 15th century: s-genitive with +animate,+topical+proto but even in that context it was in the minority • 16th century: more s-genitives in that context, by early 17th century it has become the preferred construction for those cases • Extensions of s-genitive to other cases: recent
Explanations: Economy • Cognitive economy: when there are two options, Choose the one that takes the least mental effort. • This on its own explains the spread from 15th to 17th century (?) Note: morphological reanalysis of ‘s from casemarker to clitic going on at the same time; not clear how this fits in. • Automatize the choice: • leads to categorical choices in preferred environment (iconicity and economy go together) • leads to spread to other environments through analogical extension (iconicity and economy go in opposite directions).
