V. Articles with Nouns in the Possessive Case

A noun in the possessive case generally precedes another noun which is its head-word. The relations between the noun in the possessive case and its head-word may be of two kinds.

1. The noun in the possessive case may denote a particular person or thing, as in my mother's room, the man's voice. This kind of the possessive case is called the specifying possessive. The specifying possessive may indicate the owner of a thing (e.g. my uncle's car), the doer of an action (e.g. the minister's speech), the bearer of a state (e.g. my sister's illness). The specifying possessive may be replaced if necessary by an of-phrase, e.g. the father of the boys, the room of my father-in-law, etc. With proper names, however, the possessive case is the rule, e.g. John's parents, Mary's birthday, etc.

2. The noun in the possessive case may refer to a whole class of similar objects. This kind of the possessive case is called the classifying possessive, e.g. sheep's eyes (which means eyes of a certain kind but not the eyes of a particular sheep), a doctor's degree, a soldier's uniform, a summer's day, a doll's face, a mile's distance. The classifying possessive is normally not replaced by an of-phrase.

The adjective General Characteristic

According to the semantic principle adjectives fall into two groups: qualitative (directly denoting properties) and relative (describing properties through some relations). Adjectives in English do not take any endings to express agreement with the head-word. The only pattern of morphological change is that of degrees of comparison.

Degrees of Comparison

There are three grades of comparison: positive, comparative and superlative. The superlative is generally used with the definite article.

1. Formation

Ways of formation may be synthetic, analytic and suppletive.

1) The comparative and the superlative of most one-syllable and two syllable words are formed in the synthetic way, i.e. by adding the suffix -er, est: fast-faster-fastest, etc.

Note 1: The comparative of real, right and wrong is formed with more and most: real – more real - most real, etc.

Note 2: The comparative of an adjective ending in -y is formed by adding -er and –est but –y is changed into -i: easy – easier – easiest, etc.

Note 3: If the last syllable of an adjective is stressed and contains a short vowel, the last consonant should be doubled: thin – thinner – thinnest, etc.

2. The comparative and the superlative of three and more syllable adjectives are formed analytically, i.e. with more and most: ridiculous – more ridiculous – most ridiculous, etc.

This is also the way to form the degrees of comparison of the adjectives ending in -ing, - ed, -ful, -less:amusing – more amusing – most amusing, confused – more confused – most confused, stressful – more stressful – most stressful, hopeless – more hopeless – most hopeless, etc.

Note 4: Some two-syllable adjectives such as: clever, common, narrow, gentle, friendly, simple, etc. take either -er/est or more/most.

Note 4: Care should be taken to remember that most when used before an adjective does not always form the superlative degree. It may have the meaning of very, extremely. Then it is preceded by the indefinite article. Examples are:

• He was a most interesting man.

• She's most polite.

• He works most efficiently.

3. Several adjectives form their degrees of comparison by means of suppletive forms:

Adj./Adv.	Comparative	Superlative	Comments	Examples
good/well	better	best
bad/badly	worse	worst
much/many/a lot	more	most
little	less lesser	least -	not so great	the lesser of two evils
far	farther further	farthest furthest	for distance for time (meaning in addition) and distance	The train station is further/farther away than the bus station. I have got no further comments to make.
old	older elder	oldest eldest	for age (+noun) for members of a family	My elder sister is a dentist. She is five years older than me.
near	nearer	nearest next	for distance for order
late	later	latest last	most recent final	I bought the latest edition of today’s paper. I bought the last edition of today’s paper.