Saxon genitive
Encyclopedia
In English language
teaching, the term "Saxon genitive" is used to associate the possessive use of the apostrophe (the commonly-termed "apostrophe s") with the historical origin in Anglo Saxon (also known as Old English) of the morpheme
that it represents. The Saxon genitive is one of the ways in modern English of forming a genitive construction
, along with the preposition "of".
The 's morpheme originated in Old English as an inflexional suffix
marking genitive case
.
In the modern language, it can be often be attached to the end of an entire phrase (as in "The King of Spain's wife" or "The man who you met yesterday's bicycle"). As a result, it is normally viewed by linguists as a clitic
, i.e. a morpheme that cannot be a word by itself but is grammatically independent of the word it is attached to, as in forms such as 'm (as in I'm) or n't (as in don't).
A similar form of the morpheme existed in the Germanic ancestor of English, and exists in some modern Germanic languages. The spelling with an apostrophe
is unique to English.
) singular
case
as follows:
The final -s spelling of the personal possessive pronoun
s his, hers, ours, yours, theirs is not felt to represent a possessive
morpheme
. For this reason the words are spelled without apostrophes. However, the impersonal one is felt to combine with a possessive
morpheme
, so that the spelling one's is used. The possessive
determiner
corresponding to it is an object of widespread confusion. Standard practice is to use the spelling its, and to reserve the spelling it's for the contraction
of it is or it has.
, -es was the ending of the genitive singular
of most strong declension nouns and the masculine
and neuter
genitive singular of strong adjective
s. The ending -e was used for strong nouns with Germanic ō-stems, which constituted most of the feminine
strong nouns, and for the feminine genitive singular form of strong adjectives.
In Middle English
the -es ending was generalised to the genitive of all strong declension nouns. By the sixteenth century, the remaining strong declension endings were generalised to all nouns. The spelling -es remained, but in many words the letter -e- no longer represented a sound. In those words, printers often copied the French practice of substituting an apostrophe
for the letter e. In later use, -'s was used for all nouns where the /s/ sound was used for the possessive form, and the -e- was no longer omitted. Confusingly, the -'s form was also used for plural
noun forms. These were derived from the strong declension -as ending in Old English. In Middle English, the spelling was changed to -es, reflecting a change in pronunciation, and extended to all case
s of the plural, including the genitive. Later conventions removed the apostrophe from subjective and objective case
forms and added it after the -s in possessive case
forms. See Apostrophe: Historical development
In the Early Modern English of 1580 to 1620 it was sometimes spelled as "his" as a folk etymology, e.g. "St. James his park"; see his genitive
.
represented by the spelling -'s was a case
marker
attached to a noun
denoting the possessor. It is often referred to as a case ending or suffix
. In Modern English the marker may be attached to the final noun in a noun phrase
when that noun is not the actual possessor, for example the King of Norway's daughter. In the traditional ballad Sir Patrick Spens
, an earlier construction is preserved: the King's dochter of Noroway. It has been argued that without capitalization, noun phrase
s such as "the king of Spain’s hat" are ambiguous between "the hat of the king of Spain" or "the king of the hat of Spain". Older usage had "the king’s hat of Spain" or, rarely, "Spain's king's hat". This separation from the head noun possessor is possible even when the noun is in a subordinate clause
, for example "the man (whom) you met yesterday's bicycle", which is not ambiguous. This is rewordable as "the bicycle of the man (whom) you met yesterday" or "the bicycle belonging to the man (whom) you met yesterday."
Because the 's ending is separable from the head noun, it is standardly analyzed by linguists as a clitic
. Traditional grammarians are sometimes uncomfortable with this, because they tend to view English grammar through the lens of classical languages like Latin
and Ancient Greek
. A single linguistic paper by Payne and Huddleston makes a similar argument.
recommend the more modern addition of an s when forming the singular regular possessive of a noun ending in "s" but specifically state that adding simply an apostrophe (eg. Jesus) is also correct.
The Elements of Style
and the Canadian Press Stylebook hold that the s is mandatory with only two exceptions: classical and Biblical proper names (e.g. "Jesus' teachings", "Augustus' guards") and common phrases that do not take the s (e.g. "for goodness' sake"). In all other cases, it is incorrect to omit the s.
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
teaching, the term "Saxon genitive" is used to associate the possessive use of the apostrophe (the commonly-termed "apostrophe s") with the historical origin in Anglo Saxon (also known as Old English) of the morpheme
Morpheme
In linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest semantically meaningful unit in a language. The field of study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. A morpheme is not identical to a word, and the principal difference between the two is that a morpheme may or may not stand alone, whereas a word,...
that it represents. The Saxon genitive is one of the ways in modern English of forming a genitive construction
Genitive construction
In grammar, a genitive construction or genitival construction is a type of grammatical construction used to express a relation between two nouns such as the possession of one by another , or some other type of connection...
, along with the preposition "of".
The 's morpheme originated in Old English as an inflexional suffix
Suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs...
marking genitive case
Genitive case
In grammar, genitive is the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun...
.
In the modern language, it can be often be attached to the end of an entire phrase (as in "The King of Spain's wife" or "The man who you met yesterday's bicycle"). As a result, it is normally viewed by linguists as a clitic
Clitic
In morphology and syntax, a clitic is a morpheme that is grammatically independent, but phonologically dependent on another word or phrase. It is pronounced like an affix, but works at the phrase level...
, i.e. a morpheme that cannot be a word by itself but is grammatically independent of the word it is attached to, as in forms such as 'm (as in I'm) or n't (as in don't).
A similar form of the morpheme existed in the Germanic ancestor of English, and exists in some modern Germanic languages. The spelling with an apostrophe
Apostrophe
The apostrophe is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritic mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet or certain other alphabets...
is unique to English.
The English possessive
Modern English spelling marks the genitive (or possessivePossessive
Possessive may be:* Possessive case* Possessive adjective* Possessive pronoun* Possessive suffix* Possessive construction, pattern among words indicating possession * For possessive behavior in a relationship, see Attachment in adults...
) singular
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
case
Grammatical case
In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun is an inflectional form that indicates its grammatical function in a phrase, clause, or sentence. For example, a pronoun may play the role of subject , of direct object , or of possessor...
as follows:
| Regular noun not ending in "s" |
Regular noun ending in "s" |
Irregular noun | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | -’s (e.g. cat's) | -’s or -’ (e.g. class's, goodness') | -’s (e.g. child's, ox's, mouse's) |
| Plural | -s' (e.g. cats') | -es' (e.g. classes', goodnesses') | -'s (e.g. children's, oxen's, mice's) |
The final -s spelling of the personal possessive pronoun
Personal pronoun
Personal pronouns are pronouns used as substitutes for proper or common nouns. All known languages contain personal pronouns.- English personal pronouns :English in common use today has seven personal pronouns:*first-person singular...
s his, hers, ours, yours, theirs is not felt to represent a possessive
Possessive case
The possessive case of a language is a grammatical case used to indicate a relationship of possession. It is not the same as the genitive case, which can express a wider range of relationships, though the two have similar meanings in many languages.See Possession for a survey of the different...
morpheme
Morpheme
In linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest semantically meaningful unit in a language. The field of study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. A morpheme is not identical to a word, and the principal difference between the two is that a morpheme may or may not stand alone, whereas a word,...
. For this reason the words are spelled without apostrophes. However, the impersonal one is felt to combine with a possessive
Possessive case
The possessive case of a language is a grammatical case used to indicate a relationship of possession. It is not the same as the genitive case, which can express a wider range of relationships, though the two have similar meanings in many languages.See Possession for a survey of the different...
morpheme
Morpheme
In linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest semantically meaningful unit in a language. The field of study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. A morpheme is not identical to a word, and the principal difference between the two is that a morpheme may or may not stand alone, whereas a word,...
, so that the spelling one's is used. The possessive
Possessive
Possessive may be:* Possessive case* Possessive adjective* Possessive pronoun* Possessive suffix* Possessive construction, pattern among words indicating possession * For possessive behavior in a relationship, see Attachment in adults...
determiner
Determiner
Determiner may refer to:* Determiner , a class of words including articles and demonstratives within the noun phrase* Determiner phrase, a phrase headed by a determiner* Determinative, sometimes called determiners-See also:...
corresponding to it is an object of widespread confusion. Standard practice is to use the spelling its, and to reserve the spelling it's for the contraction
Contraction (grammar)
A contraction is a shortened version of the written and spoken forms of a word, syllable, or word group, created by omission of internal letters....
of it is or it has.
Development
In Old EnglishOld English language
Old English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England and southeastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century...
, -es was the ending of the genitive singular
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
of most strong declension nouns and the masculine
Masculine
Masculine or masculinity, normally refer to qualities positively associated with men.Masculine may also refer to:*Masculine , a grammatical gender*Masculine cadence, a final chord occurring on a strong beat in music...
and neuter
Neuter
Neuter is a Latin adjective meaning "neither", and can refer to:* Neutering, the sterilization of an animal* The neuter grammatical gender-See also:*Trap-Neuter-Return , an alternative to euthanasia for managing feral cat and dog populations...
genitive singular of strong adjective
Adjective
In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
s. The ending -e was used for strong nouns with Germanic ō-stems, which constituted most of the feminine
Feminine
Feminine, or femininity, normally refers to qualities positively associated with women.Feminine may also refer to:*Feminine , a grammatical gender*Feminine cadence, a final chord falling in a metrically weak position...
strong nouns, and for the feminine genitive singular form of strong adjectives.
| Gender | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Strong masculine | -es | -a |
| Weak masculine | -an | -ena |
| Strong feminine | -e | -a |
| Weak feminine | -an | -ena |
| Strong neuter | -es | -a |
| Weak neuter | -an | -ena |
In Middle English
Middle English
Middle English is the stage in the history of the English language during the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century....
the -es ending was generalised to the genitive of all strong declension nouns. By the sixteenth century, the remaining strong declension endings were generalised to all nouns. The spelling -es remained, but in many words the letter -e- no longer represented a sound. In those words, printers often copied the French practice of substituting an apostrophe
Apostrophe
The apostrophe is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritic mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet or certain other alphabets...
for the letter e. In later use, -'s was used for all nouns where the /s/ sound was used for the possessive form, and the -e- was no longer omitted. Confusingly, the -'s form was also used for plural
Plural
In linguistics, plurality or [a] plural is a concept of quantity representing a value of more-than-one. Typically applied to nouns, a plural word or marker is used to distinguish a value other than the default quantity of a noun, which is typically one...
noun forms. These were derived from the strong declension -as ending in Old English. In Middle English, the spelling was changed to -es, reflecting a change in pronunciation, and extended to all case
Case
-Academia and education:* Campaign for Science and Engineering , a non-profit organization which promotes science and engineering research in the UK* Case analysis, division of a problem into separate cases...
s of the plural, including the genitive. Later conventions removed the apostrophe from subjective and objective case
Morphology (linguistics)
In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description, in a language, of the structure of morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context...
forms and added it after the -s in possessive case
Morphology (linguistics)
In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description, in a language, of the structure of morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context...
forms. See Apostrophe: Historical development
In the Early Modern English of 1580 to 1620 it was sometimes spelled as "his" as a folk etymology, e.g. "St. James his park"; see his genitive
His genitive
The his genitive is a means of forming a genitive construction by linking two nouns with a possessive pronoun such as "his"...
.
Grammatical status as clitic, suffix or case ending
Historically, the possessive morphemeMorpheme
In linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest semantically meaningful unit in a language. The field of study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. A morpheme is not identical to a word, and the principal difference between the two is that a morpheme may or may not stand alone, whereas a word,...
represented by the spelling -'s was a case
Grammatical case
In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun is an inflectional form that indicates its grammatical function in a phrase, clause, or sentence. For example, a pronoun may play the role of subject , of direct object , or of possessor...
marker
Marker (linguistics)
In linguistics, a marker is a free or bound morpheme that indicates the grammatical function of the marked word, phrase, or sentence. In analytic languages and agglutinative languages, markers are generally easily distinguished. In fusional languages and polysynthetic languages, this is often not...
attached to a noun
Noun
In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
denoting the possessor. It is often referred to as a case ending or suffix
Suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs...
. In Modern English the marker may be attached to the final noun in a noun phrase
Noun phrase
In grammar, a noun phrase, nominal phrase, or nominal group is a phrase based on a noun, pronoun, or other noun-like word optionally accompanied by modifiers such as adjectives....
when that noun is not the actual possessor, for example the King of Norway's daughter. In the traditional ballad Sir Patrick Spens
Sir Patrick Spens
"Sir Patrick Spens" is one of the most popular of the Child Ballads , and is of Scottish origin.-Historicity:The events of the ballad are similar to, and may chronicle, an actual event: the bringing home of the Scottish queen Margaret, Maid of Norway across the North Sea in 1290...
, an earlier construction is preserved: the King's dochter of Noroway. It has been argued that without capitalization, noun phrase
Noun phrase
In grammar, a noun phrase, nominal phrase, or nominal group is a phrase based on a noun, pronoun, or other noun-like word optionally accompanied by modifiers such as adjectives....
s such as "the king of Spain’s hat" are ambiguous between "the hat of the king of Spain" or "the king of the hat of Spain". Older usage had "the king’s hat of Spain" or, rarely, "Spain's king's hat". This separation from the head noun possessor is possible even when the noun is in a subordinate clause
Dependent clause
In linguistics, a dependent clause is a clause that augments an independent clause with additional information, but which cannot stand alone as a sentence. Dependent clauses modify the independent clause of a sentence or serve as a component of it...
, for example "the man (whom) you met yesterday's bicycle", which is not ambiguous. This is rewordable as "the bicycle of the man (whom) you met yesterday" or "the bicycle belonging to the man (whom) you met yesterday."
Because the 's ending is separable from the head noun, it is standardly analyzed by linguists as a clitic
Clitic
In morphology and syntax, a clitic is a morpheme that is grammatically independent, but phonologically dependent on another word or phrase. It is pronounced like an affix, but works at the phrase level...
. Traditional grammarians are sometimes uncomfortable with this, because they tend to view English grammar through the lens of classical languages like Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
and Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
. A single linguistic paper by Payne and Huddleston makes a similar argument.
Mention in style guides
Some respected style guides such as The Chicago Manual of StyleThe Chicago Manual of Style
The Chicago Manual of Style is a style guide for American English published since 1906 by the University of Chicago Press. Its 16 editions have prescribed writing and citation styles widely used in publishing...
recommend the more modern addition of an s when forming the singular regular possessive of a noun ending in "s" but specifically state that adding simply an apostrophe (eg. Jesus) is also correct.
The Elements of Style
The Elements of Style
The Elements of Style , also known as Strunk & White, by William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White, is a prescriptive American English writing style guide comprising eight "elementary rules of usage", ten "elementary principles of composition", "a few matters of form", a list of forty-nine "words and...
and the Canadian Press Stylebook hold that the s is mandatory with only two exceptions: classical and Biblical proper names (e.g. "Jesus' teachings", "Augustus' guards") and common phrases that do not take the s (e.g. "for goodness' sake"). In all other cases, it is incorrect to omit the s.