Showing possession for two nouns owning one item

Thanks for straightening me out on this, Dupre. I was wrong thinking that an appositive wasn't an adjectival. (Don't know what got into me! Smile

) You're sure right, English is a funny language. These rules about using or not using a possessive form with a gerund are amazing. I think most of us get by with sounds right or doesn't sound. Guess that's intuitive, but I never knew some of these rules and I couldn't find them either!

How is it that you're researching this, do you mind me asking?

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I'm a proofreader of fiction. Have been since '98.

Often I come across strange sentences and I just want to do my job well.

I did study Latin, French, Greek and Spanish, but what I really learned, I hope, is English.

I love language and syntax and just seek to understand it; that's all.

I'm currently reading The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. It's more or less a survey of many aspects of linguistics. I think it's interesting.

Thanks for asking.

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Or would that be . . .

"Do you mind MY asking?"

Who knows?

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Good one. I don't know -- I thought I understood from those rules that both were correct depending on what the writer is emphasizing. I think I tend to avoid the possessive-gerund construction and go for the object-participle with a lot more fervor. Maybe in the end it is a philosophical slant; I'm looking at the person more than the action.

I was a technical writer and editor for 15 years. The technique is not nearly as graceful as fiction nor is there much subtlety. I'm so glad not to worry about what I write anymore. It was stressful.

The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language? Nice. I just checked Amazon to see what it was like. Sounds very interesting.

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Piffka, technical writing is the hardest of all! I'm impressed.

Back to the gerund construction vs. particple . . .

Consider

"Your playing when you should have been working was most unappreciated."

vs.

"You playing when you should have been working was/were most unappreciated."

The subject is obviously the phrase "playing" modified by "when you should have been working," so "you" could not be the subject; rather, "your" would have to modify the subject.

And here, I like the emphasis on the unappreciated behavior vs. the person. A little more diplomatic, don't you think?

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Dupre - it is definitely nicer to point to the unappreciated behavior in that case. You may be interested to know that, thanks to you, I've been watching my gerunds and enjoying them more.

(My watching & enjoying gerunds has become excessive!) Laughing

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LOL! Well said.

My regretting passing on my obession to another does not diminish my continuing to participate in such behavior.

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Nor should it!

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My underlying understanding of the gerund, from Latin and English, were blown free of their moorings when I studied italian, and...since I studied italian late and retain little, I have nowt to tell you about it all. But...Gerald was a cow horse...

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I did hear back from The Chicago Manual of Style. This answer was posted on their Web site. Thanks again for all y'all's help!

Quote:

Q. When using a pronoun to replace the first noun when two nouns show possession of one item, which case should the pronoun be? For example, in the sentence “I’m going to my uncle and aunt’s house,” “uncle” is not in the possessive case. So which case should the pronoun be? “I’m going to him and my aunt’s house”? “I’m going to he and my aunt’s house”? Or, “I’m going to his and my aunt’s house”? And, if the answer is “his,” how do you reconcile that the pronoun is not agreeing with the noun it replaces in gender, number, and case? And what is correct if the pronoun replaces the second noun? “Megan’s and his room”? Or “Megan and his room”?

A. The trick of showing joint possession with a single apostrophe s is possible only with two items that can take an apostrophe s. Hence a car owned by John and Jim can be expressed as “John and Jim’s car.” This is clearly a convenient shorthand—helped out by the fact that, normally, you can assume readers will not think that you’re writing about John, on one hand, and Jim’s car, on the other. Most pronouns do not form the possessive with an apostrophe s. “One” becomes “one’s,” but “he” becomes “his” and “I” becomes “my.” Therefore you generally cannot use shortcuts in cases of joint possession involving a pronoun. You must make both owners possessive:

his and my aunt’s house
Megan’s and his room

You can reconcile the first as equivalent to “my uncle and aunt’s house” by remembering that the apostrophe s after “aunt” also applies to “uncle”; “his” is technically replacing “uncle’s” not “uncle.”

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Dupre, Thanks for getting back to us with this info. The explanation makes perfect sense to me.

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Showing possession for two nouns owning one item

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