Take this as an example: "school volleyball team". I wonder why it isn't school's volleyball team? Could anyone tell me when it is better not to use 's for possession?
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1Because “school” is a noun adjunct in your sentence which works as an adjective.– user 66974Commented Oct 28, 2018 at 8:17
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1Who knows? Attributive genitives of the descriptive type are an unproductive category. We have "a glorious summer's/winter's day", but hardly "a spring's day" or "an autumn's day". Similarly, we have "a ship's doctor", but not a "school's doctor" - a plain case nominal is used, "a school doctor".– BillJCommented Oct 28, 2018 at 9:27
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This is a broad and actually interesting question, but that's the thing. It is not simple and you won't get a single simple reason, which appears to be what you're after. At the end of the day, asking "why" with languages is futile. Often there's no answer, and even when there is, your knowing or not knowing it doesn't really change the fact that you just have to use what everyone else uses. Language is not reason-oriented, it's goal-oriented. People have to say something, and if that something is perfectly clear, then there's little point in wondering why they don't say something else.– RegDwigнtCommented Oct 28, 2018 at 11:45
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Thank you for your answer. In fact, by "why" I want to understand the rule( if there is any), because I don't want to make mistake in other similar cases @RegDwigнt– Holger MateCommented Oct 28, 2018 at 14:32
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