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A note on ‘elliptical’, ‘absolute’, and ‘independent’ genitives in earlier English

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2004

CYNTHIA L. ALLEN
CYNTHIA L. ALLEN
Affiliation:
School of Language Studies, Building 110, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200, Australiacindy.allen@anu.edu.au
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Abstract

A well-known peculiarity of Modern English is that nominal possessives can occur in ‘elliptical’ constructions in which no head noun is expressed:

(1)(a) We'll meet at Mary's.

(b) This is Mary's.

(c) Mary's is red.

Type
Squib
Information
English Language & Linguistics , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , November 2004 , pp. 351 - 354
Copyright
Cambridge University Press 2004

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