American Genitive

JuanTwoThree · Post by **JuanTwoThree** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 10:20 am

Seeing "Spain's King" on Breitbart today made me realise that I've seen this before. It's like "France's President" etc and I wonder if it's slightly more AmE than BrE.

It seems to jar ever so slightly as I would prefer "Spanish" or "French", I think.

FWIW an unscientific Google reveals that Mexico's President : Mexican President is a ratio of over 1:10 (87,000:765,000) while Ireland's President : Irish President is about 1:130 (635:82,600) which, always assuming that references to Mexico are more likely to be AmE and those to Ireland BrE, suggests a certain difference.

Nobody need send me loads of Americans using the nationality adjectives or Brits using the 's because I am aware that both happen. However, I wonder if there isn't an AmE tendency to use the 's more readily in these contexts?

lolwhites · Post by **lolwhites** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 12:40 pm

How does There is no future in England's dreaming sound to you?

It seems that the more "animate" something is, the more likely you are to see a genitive, so maybe it depends on how much a country is perceived as having a "personality". I've no idea if it's more prevalent in AmE though.

JuanTwoThree · Post by **JuanTwoThree** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 1:04 pm

Good thinking. Countries as people.

Which would you expect to Google more: "Mayor of London" or "Mayor of New York"?

lolwhites · Post by **lolwhites** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 7:06 pm

Doesn't Google usually ignore words like of?

lolwhites · Post by **lolwhites** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 7:41 pm

Although the "animate" analysis doesn't really account for the use of the genitive with some time expressions:
last night's gale
Wednesday's match
last summer's floods

JuanTwoThree · Post by **JuanTwoThree** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 8:09 pm

Google searches for the exact phrase if you use "........." as far as I know.

http://www.usingenglish.com/profiles/td ... 00302.html