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Saxon genitive. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
Saxon genitive, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
Saxon genitive in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
So named because the possessive was one of the only productive relics of the Anglo-Saxon declensional system.
Noun
Saxon genitive (plural Saxon genitives)
- (linguistics) A genitive construction in English formed with the possessive clitic -'s.
1871, A. J. Mertens, A Complete English Grammar, page 71:It is against euphony to make two genitives of the same form follow each other, particularly when they are Saxon genitives.
1997, Ewa Dąbrowska, Cognitive Semantics and the Polish Dative, page 149:First, not all Saxon genitives can be paraphrased with have: many subjective and objective nominalizations (the boy's escape, the boy's release), genitives of origin (the boy's letter), genitives of measure (ten days' absence), and many genitives with non-human reference points (today's paper, next year's profits, duty's call, the poll's results) do not have analogous uses with have (*The boy has an escape, *The boy has a release...).