I think I understand the possessive + gerund construct but in some cases I'm still finding it difficult to get it sound right in my head. I think this mostly has to do with the subject's being a noun/name and not a pronoun (the bold part is an example of this).
So, are these correct?
- The notion of a body's having a constant temperature...
- Due to my father's being a Swiss citizen...
Or should I rather use these, which, right now, sound better to me?
- The notion of a body having a constant temperature...
- Due to my father being a Swiss citizen...
But these I can more easily accept (though still awkward, maybe they are just not good examples):
- The notion of my having a constant temperature...
- Due to his being a Swiss citizen...
ETA: In case it's not clear, I'm not a native English speaker, so my feelings about what sounds good or not are not to be taken seriously ;)
ACC
-ing complementizer (me having a constant temperature) and thePOSS
-ing complementizer (my having a constant temperature) is entirely optional and at the pleasure of the speaker. There is no grammatical difference between them -- as long as you don't use I, you can use any other first person pronoun -- and there is no meaning difference. Different people have different speech habits; follow your own. Oh, and there's no difference between pronoun and noun, either; again, different people will have different frequencies of use.