Possess Me Utterly

[gnomi]

With apologies for the highly Christian subject line in this here Jewish chick's journal, a poll on possession (or, at least, possessives):

[Poll #617428]

Comments

[saxikath]

There is no such thing as too many dictionaries.

Says the woman with... um... (counts)... Six that I can think of, and that's just in English.

[queue.livejournal.com]

Although, I would say that, for the Bob question, the second choice might be acceptable informally in some parts of the country.

[cafemusique.livejournal.com]

Yes...just about anything wrong is probably acceptable informally.

ISTR that the 's is equivalent to of, so the second one would be "translated" as: Former co-workers of of Bob.

I think it has to be either "Former co-workers of Bob" or "Bob's former co-workers."

[byrne.livejournal.com]

I agree.

[queue.livejournal.com]

Yes...just about anything wrong is probably acceptable informally.

Um, no.

[cramerica.livejournal.com]

An interesting case: should that song title have been "Sweet Child O' Me"?

[tsuki-no-bara.livejournal.com]

you forgot a ticky for "too much time on her hands." :D

[eal.livejournal.com]

Yes, she did. And that's the one that I would have picked!

M

[tiptoe39.livejournal.com]

saxikath stole what I was gonna say.

No such thing as too many usage guides either.

[lisatheriveter.livejournal.com]

I have over six feet of dictionaries and usage guides - but the Chicago Manual of Style is still my mainstay. It now comes on CD-Rom, too! You can buy the book, the disc, or both.

[eal.livejournal.com]

After what I've seen tonight -- all of this looks okay to me.

Brain melted from grading WAY TOO MANY papers.

M

[madfilkentist]

What's the difference between "either" and "both" in the second question?

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

I was thinking of it in terms of "I have one I use but I find either acceptable" and "I use both interchangably."

Ask Ms. Language Person

[llennhoff.livejournal.com]

Off the specific topic, but when I say something requires effort by two or more parties, do I say
"on both parties' parts" or "on both parties' part"? I lean towards the latter.

Re: Ask Ms. Language Person

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I'd recast it and say "on the parts of both parties."

Which I guess mean that I'd lean toward the former, though I think it sounds odd.