A Unified Approach to Genitive Alternation in English

• 발행기관: 현대문법학회
• 저자명: Eun suk Lee Ju hyun Back
• 간행물 정보: 『현대문법연구』제92호, 203~215쪽, 전체 13쪽
• 주제분류: 어문학 > 영어와문학
• 파일형태: PDF
• 발행일자: 2017.01.01

영문 초록

This study considers the criteria of genitive alternation in English, i.e. the alternation between s- and of- genitive cases, in a unified approach under a single criterion. The factors that are believed to influence the choice between the two types of genitives include animacy, topicality, syntactic weight, a final sibilant in the possessor, etc. Those factors interact with each other complicatedly in the choice between the two types of genitive constructions, and some overlaps among them exist implicitly. This paper suggests that the overlapped factor is the ‘efficiency’ in the speaker’s information delivery in language use. We can get an economic result if the multiple allegedly working criteria for the choice between the genitive case constructions are replaced by the single factor ‘efficiency.’

목차

1. Introduction

2. Factors in the choice of Genitive Constructions

3. Towards a Unified Explanation

4. Conclusion

References

키워드

genitive alternation s-genitive of-genitive, animacy topicality syntactic weight sibilant efficiency