Subj : the Possessive case
To   : Mike Powell
From : Ardith Hinton
Date : Sun Mar 04 2018 13:46:03

Hi, Mike!  Recently you wrote in a message to ALEXANDER KORYAGIN:

 ak>  Look: "former Trump campaign official" and "Donald
 ak>  Trump's presidency". Why the former is without the
 ak>  Possessive case?

 MP>  Actually, if you change it from "former Trump campaign
 MP>  official" to "Trump's former campaign official," the
 MP>  possessive is correct.


           With the change in word order, yes.  I see why the author may have 
chosen not to use the possessive twice within such a short space, though... a 
repetition of "Trump's" would seem awkward &/or redundant to many readers but 
"his" would be confusing because 1-2 other men are involved in this scenario.



 MP>  I am not certain what the rule is there, but that is
 MP>  how we were taught.


           The way we were taught... i.e. assuming you are a native speaker of 
English... depended more on pattern recognition than on rules.  Both parents & 
teachers would correct obvious errors in spelling &/or grammar, and some class 
time would be spent discussing the use of the apostrophe.  But in general what 
adults did was to model standard English & expect us to pick up on it....  :-)



 MP>  That said, there may be some other rule that makes
 MP>  "former Trump campaign official" incorrect English,
 MP>  too.


           IMHO there is some justification for writing "former Trump campaign 
official" in a news report.  There's a lot more to it than I was taught during 
my childhood & adolescence, however, and while many people describe journalese 
in unflattering terms the subject probably didn't arise because nobody we knew 
personally would have thought of speaking or writing in such a manner....  :-Q




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
 * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)

.