Here is one example from the internet, however, where my understanding of this usage is demonstrated:
- "The last time I saw my dad was over Thanksgiving. I have a box of his things to keep his memory alive during the holidays."
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3His memory = our memories of him. This is a perfectly standard phrase.– Kate BuntingCommented Dec 9, 2022 at 9:05
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What do you mean by “proper”? It is different from the usage in “his things” as it means “the memory I have of him”, but it must have been in use for centuries.– DavidCommented Dec 9, 2022 at 9:07
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I assume the problem is that "his memory" looks like a possessive but it's not referring to an actual object possessed by someone (the person is now dead and the memory isn't like a vase bequeathed to one's descendents). But "his sister", "his name", etc, don't refer to possessions. And "his status", "his reputation", etc, are not literal possessions although they are associated with him.– Stuart FCommented Dec 9, 2022 at 14:52
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Compare 'his legacy' = 'what he has left behind, material + societal'. The expression is almost always the full 'keep X's/his... memory alive'. Contrast 'My memory isn't what it used to be.'– Edwin AshworthCommented Dec 9, 2022 at 16:02
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Memory is a picture noun; it is the object of remember. So it has a wide range of usages for possessives, just like his picture can mean a picture of him, a picture he took, a picture he talked about a lot, or just a picture that he owned.– John LawlerCommented Dec 10, 2022 at 17:35
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1 Answer
This is a proper use of the possessive pronoun. But the construction is inherently ambiguous - although usually the context is enough to disambiguate, as in this case.
Compare his memory with Kim's photograph. A subjective reading of the latter has Kim as the owner or maker of the photograph. An objective reading is that the photograph is a photograph of Kim.
There is a comprehensive analysis of this aspect of grammar in the following paper.
https://web.stanford.edu/~anttila/research/Anttila-Fong-VariationAmbiguity.pdf
It has a similar example to 'Kim's photgraph':
- His pictures were roundly denounced as the most disgusting things one has ever seen in Vienna.
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In response to Shoe - Ambiguity acknowledged. Like most such problems, they really only rear their nasty heads once you think about them too much. Commented Dec 9, 2022 at 9:47
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1This ambiguity is what powers the joke, when I ask the 17th-century-living-history-interpreter "May I take your picture?", and he responds in character "But I have no picture for you to take! Be off before I report you for larceny." Commented Dec 9, 2022 at 16:02