Why is "the tail/house of the dog" correct, but "the bowl of the dog" not?

Question

Upd.: I added the results of Ngram at the ending of this post.

I have some sources below which I can make the next conclusions from:

1. "the bowl of the dog" is incorrect

2. "the house of the dog" is correct

3. "the tail of the dog" is correct

Why are numbers 2. and 3. correct, but 1. not? What is the difference between them all?

Now, in detail:

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1) forum.wordreference.com:

I think "That's a bowl of my dog" is grammatically wrong.

forum.wordreference.com:

'This is the house of the dog' may be grammatically correct, but it's a pretty unlikely sentence. We would naturally say 'This is the dog's house.'

'This is the bowl of the dog' ... would sound ... odd.

So, 1. "…the bowl of the dog" is incorrect

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2) englishforums.com:

the double possessive is pretty much always used with people ...: "This is a friend of Laura's" ... a dog isn't a person. So "This is the house of the dog" is fine.

So, 2. "…the house of the dog" is correct

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3) english.stackexchange.com:

Of the two:

• The dog's tail.
• The tail of the dog.

Grammatically, both are correct.
[…] when writing, it is advantageous to communicate your point with as few words as possible making your point clear and concise. Hence, why "The dog's tail" is preferential in colloquial english as opposed to "The tail of the dog."

So, 3. "the tail of the dog" is correct

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Why are numbers 2. and 3. correct, but 1. not? What is the difference between them all? For me they are all the same.

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Upd.:

"house of * dog" vs "dog's house" — Nobody uses "house of * dog":

"bowl of * dog" vs "dog's bowl" — Nobody uses "bowl of * dog" (without taking into account "bowl of dry dog food"):

"tail of * dog" vs "dog's tail" — Sometimes people can use "tail of * dog":

To make it clearer:

"tail of a/the dog" vs "a/the dog's tail":

"tail of my/your/... dog" vs "my/your/... dog's tail":

So, why can people use "tail of * dog" but not use "bowl/house of * dog"?

Thanks!

Answer 1

The comparison phrases you are using would normally be expressed as follows:

The house of the dog => the dog's house => the kennel (noun: a shelter for a dog)

The tail of the dog => the dog's tail

The correct sentence order is << The [owner] [object] >>. In the example of the dog house, "kennel" conveys that entire meaning, so there is no need even to specify that it belongs to the dog.

Following this structure, "the dog's bowl" is correct way of expressing "the bowl of the dog." Likewise "Laura' friend," "Mark's car," "Ron's phone" and so on.

You can also substitute pronouns for proper names, such as "his car," "her handbag," "your question," and so on.

Addendum:

As mentioned in the comments below, the source of the confusion may arise when transliterating from languages which use noun-verb word order to English which uses verb-noun.

For example, in my native language Maltese, we would say "id-dhar ta-kelb". Literal translation, "the house of the dog" (dhar=house, kelb=dog). However, in fluent English we transpose the noun and verb, so the phrase becomes "the dog's house".