Grammar question

[KrazyHorse]

This book is red

The word "red" in this example is an adjective, right?

So, if we wanted to remove the word "red" and replace it with something denoting ownership we would use the possessive adjective, no?

However, the possessive adjective for the first person singular in English is "my"

This book is my

is obviously wrong (though I don't know why)

Instead, we say

This book is mine

"Mine" is the first person singular possessive pronoun. In essence, in this example, it stands for "my book", so we are saying "This book is my book".

While this is fine, why can't I use the previous phrasing to denote possession?

[Asher]

English is simply not consistent, is your answer.

[molly bloom]

Re: Grammar question

Originally posted by KrazyHorse

This book is red

The word "red" in this example is an adjective, right?

So, if we wanted to remove the word "red" and replace it with something denoting ownership we would use the possessive adjective, no?

However, the possessive adjective for the first person singular in English is "my"

This book is my

is obviously wrong (though I don't know why)

Instead, we say

This book is mine

"Mine" is the first person singular possessive pronoun. In essence, in this example, it stands for "my book", so we are saying "This book is my book".

While this is fine, why can't I use the previous phrasing to denote possession?

Because it can appear to leave the meaning incomplete.

'This book is my.'

'This book is my favourite'.

'This book is my father's'.

Whereas 'This book is mine' definitively asserts that the book belongs to you, and no one else, and that only the ownership of the book is in question.

It should be pointed out too that we now use 'my' where in the past we used 'mine':

“Cover her face; mine eyes dazzle; she died young.”

comes from John Webster's Jacobean tragedy 'The Duchess of Malfi'.

[DAVOUT]

KH

You should check the difference between an adjective and a pronoun.

In your example :

This book is what? The answer must be a noun or a pronoun; it is what you obtain with "my book", in which there is a noun and an adjective as it could be in "a yellow book". But you can also answer with a pronoun, which is grammatically equivalent to a noun.

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by DAVOUT
KH

You should check the difference between an adjective and a pronoun.

In your example :

This book is what? The answer must be a noun or a pronoun; it is what you obtain with "my book", in which there is a noun and an adjective as it could be in "a yellow book". But you can also answer with a pronoun, which is grammatically equivalent to a noun.

As far as I know, this is incorrect. Every source I've ever seen lists "red" is this case as an adjective.

I've never been entirely comfortable with this, but it's stated as fact in every standard reference.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse


As far as I know, this is incorrect. Every source I've ever seen lists "red" is this case as an adjective.

I've never been entirely comfortable with this, but it's stated as fact in every standard reference.

You want to use a possessive pronoun not adjective, though.

Anglo-Saxon makes it much more explicit, but then it's closer to German and noun and case/adjectival agreements than Modern English.

[KrazyHorse]

More specifically, in "the book is red", "red" is a predicative adjective.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adjective#Predicative_adjective

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by molly bloom


You want to use a possessive pronoun not adjective, though

I know I do. I don't know why I'm forced to, however.

"my" is much more strongly related to "red" than "mine" is to "red", yet in this case, the predicative adjective is replaced by the possessive pronoun and cannot be replaced by the possessive adjective.

That seems strange to me.

[DAVOUT]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse


As far as I know, this is incorrect. Every source I've ever seen lists "red" is this case as an adjective.

I've never been entirely comfortable with this, but it's stated as fact in every standard reference.

Red is undoubtedly an adjective, but as such it is not answered to the question "This book is what?", but to the question "This book is how? And "how" can receive any adjective of descrition you like (red, good, large, torn, pornographic, ...), except a possessive adjective which requires to be accompanied by a noun.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
I know I do. I don't know why I'm forced to, however.

"my" is much more strongly related to "red" than "mine" is to "red", yet in this case, the predicative adjective is replaced by the possessive pronoun and cannot be replaced by the possessive adjective.

That seems strange to me.

molly's first answer makes sense - because the possessive adjective could be modifying something after, but the possessive pronoun signals the end of the clause definately.

[Barnabas]

"The book is of me" is wrong right?

[Kuciwalker]

/me nods

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by Brachy-Pride
"The book is of me" is wrong right?

Right, wrong.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse


I know I do. I don't know why I'm forced to, however.

"my" is much more strongly related to "red" than "mine" is to "red", yet in this case, the predicative adjective is replaced by the possessive pronoun and cannot be replaced by the possessive adjective.

That seems strange to me.

"This book is mine" more closely resembles
"This book is KrazyHorse's" than it does
"This book is red."

That is, you need a possessive pronoun much more than you need an adjective. Although you can say "This book is my" you have to rearrange the words so that they read, "This is my book."

[b etor]

English is just a fun nonsense language.