Can we use yours twice in succession? As in:
My sign governs my style; and yours, yours.
Any other possible usage? Is my example otherwise grammatically correct?
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4Sure, why not? And yes it is correct.– anongoodnurseCommented Feb 7, 2015 at 8:48
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1When you say "sign" do you mean the astrological star sign?– Mari-Lou ACommented Feb 7, 2015 at 8:48
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2"The English test asked me to choose between your and yours; yours was the correct answer."– J.R.Commented Feb 7, 2015 at 12:43
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2Why do you think there is any rule in English forbidding using the same word twice in a row? I honestly want to know, because people keep asking this same question even though it just doesn’t make any sense phrased like so so I figure somebody out there has published some mythological non-rule that people are suffering because of. Just because it isn't what you think it is is no reason to think it's what it isn't either.– tchrist ♦Commented Feb 7, 2015 at 17:40
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2@gauravtechno - Things like "uncommon" and "sounds odd" are not the same as "grammatically incorrect". Put another way, just because you can doesn't mean you should.– J.R.Commented Feb 7, 2015 at 19:16
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2 Answers
Sure, English is flexible enough to do this. Repetition is sometimes used for emphasis, and we can conjure some examples that would put the word yours twice in succession without breaking any grammatical rules. For example:
All of what I have is yours – yours and yours alone.
I think this should be yours, yours and not his.
Everything I gave you today is yours: yours to keep, yours to cherish, yours to treasure.
Lovers sometimes write to each other using such prose. In a letter from Louise Whitfield to Andrew Carnegie:
“I am yours, yours, all yours, for you have thrown the mantle of your great love around me, and I am no more cold and trembling, but warm and strong.”
And here's an example written by Canadian naturalist John A. Livingston:
“Wildlife is yours; yours to manipulate in your own best interest.”
And in a work of fiction by Amanda Hemingway:
“My world will become yours, yours mine — and all that we have achieved will not be lost.”
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1But your examples (except, possibly, the last) are not equivalent to the original. In the original the first "yours" refers to "sign", while the second refers to "style". Simply using the word twice for emphasis is an entirely different scenario. Commented Feb 7, 2015 at 13:54
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@HotLicks - True; that's a good point. I am answering this part of the O.P.'s question: "Any other possible usage?"– J.R.Commented Feb 7, 2015 at 13:56
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@HotLicks Exactly! That's what I've been wanting to say. Commented Feb 7, 2015 at 18:19
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@gauravtechno - If your question is specifically about that particular usage, then see my last example. Of course, one could put the conjunction and in there, but it's not required.– J.R.Commented Feb 7, 2015 at 19:14
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It seems plausible to me that there might be a grammatical constraint preventing double "yours", since there is at least one such constraint known, the "double -ing" constraint discovered by Ross in 1972 and much discussed since (for instance here). However, I find the examples of "yours yours" I've seen so far to be acceptable.
