Possible Duplicate:
Is using the possessive 's correct in “the car’s antenna”?
Can we add apostrophe S, 's, to a word for an inanimate object as in the phrase
the problem's underlying assumptions
to denote possession? Would it be natural and grammatically correct?
Yes, we can.
I don't think a native speaker would have any problem with your sentence.
It can be a grammatically correct use of the possessive if the inanimate object actually possesses what follows.
I am not convinced that the underlying assumptions belong to the problem. They may have been used in constructing the problem or have been incorporated into the problem statement; but are they 'possessed' by the problem?
Yes it is grammatically correct.
Though in spoken english, saying "The underlying assumptions of the problem" would be better, to avoid all ambiguity.
