Timeline for "The dog's tail" vs. "the tail of the dog"

5 events

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Oct 29, 2012 at 0:31	comment	added	FumbleFingers		@John Lawler: It's all the same to me if it's the tables's leg or the leg of the table that needs bracing (though if it were yours, it would have to be John's leg, not the leg of John). Also, like Bill, I might omit the 's completely sometimes. But offhand I can't think of a single case where 's wouldn't be okay by me (animate/inanimate subject, metaphorical/literal object, etc.), but of certainly doesn't seem to be equally acceptable in all contexts.
Oct 29, 2012 at 0:17	comment	added	user21497		I think the average American speaker would say "The table leg needs bracing" and "The dog's tail needs cropping"
Oct 28, 2012 at 23:23	comment	added	John Lawler		The Germanic inflectional (now enclitic) -'s and the Romance prepositional of possessives are in complementary distribution for most people, though individual distributional rules will vary. Most use -'s of animate possessors, and of for inanimates. Since metaphors are the majority of our phrases, this means that there are more legs and tails around than there are actual animals to possess them. Consider The leg of the table needs bracing vs The table's leg, for instance.
Oct 28, 2012 at 22:18	comment	added	Barrie England		+1 .Indeed. Think of it as a genitive inflection, rather than anything to do with possession, and any objection of that sort disappears.
Oct 28, 2012 at 21:51	history	answered	FumbleFingers	CC BY-SA 3.0