Sunday, June 26, 2016

pronunciation vs spelling - Are there nouns that undergo no change when used in the possessive (Saxon genitive)?

I’m looking for the existence of English nouns (common or proper) that
undergo no change when used in their possessive (Saxon genitive) form,
i.e. that do not take the usual ’s appendage the way radio’s,
or Paul’s would. If there exist nouns that end with s or x, and

for which the single possessive apostrophe is widely accepted as
being optional, then that would count too.



My understanding is that every possessive noun either takes ’s
or just , but can’t confirm.



My question is specifically about the genitive form., i.e. Bob's car, desk's surface, crucifix'.



Since posting this question originally, I've learned a bit more about some of the taxonomy on the subject. I thought initially that the lack of apostrophe in phrases such as “boyscout club chocolate’s bitter taste” may have been a hint nouns didn't need an apostrophe in certain cases. But they're a different case.




Many have been quick to point out noun-noun compounds functioning as attributive nouns, such as in telephone pole, glee club or mountain rock peaks to express relative notions of "ownership"/"possession". Or that prepositions can also be introduced to express possession, e.g. "The book of Peter".



But, I do not mean to ask about attribute nouns, nor "x of y" constructions.



Do all nouns take the 's or ' when used on their own in the genitive?



Edit



Similar posts:





  • Discussion on whether mens or womens takes an apostrophe. Did not initially find that question because it was specific to those two instances of words. In my original post I'd mentioned whether womens and childrens without apostrophe would be considered to be spelled correctly, without suspecting I'd be stepping into a whole slew of other posts.


  • Using possessive nouns in the plural. I’ve found a similar, but different question here on possessive nouns in the plural. This kind of is what I'm looking for, but it's more about transforming nouns into attributive nouns, than nouns that don't need the apostrophe because of their nature.


  • It’s been pointed out that in some countries, namely US and
    Australia, possessive apostrophes are deprecated in place
    names
    . That is sort of the answer I'm looking for, but only if the last token in the chain of nouns would normally take a 's.
    Are there more such cases in other fields?




I do feel at this point that the answer to my question is kind of spread on a million different questions.

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