Talk:Possessive pronoun

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[edit] Possessive adjective

This article could contain some discussion of the term "possessive adjective" still commonly used. — Hippietrail 15:25, 1 Sep 2004 (UTC)

I just put in a link to it. I think "possessive adjectives" should redirect to "possessive adjective", not this page. PizzaMargherita 22:16, 14 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Genitive case of pronouns vs "distinct" possessive pronouns

Hi there.

Few languages have distinct possessive pronouns, since possession can be expressed with, for example, a genitive case.
The genitive case of a pronoun is sometimes confused with a possessive pronoun.

I'm not sure I understand this, as it seems to contradict the rest of the article. Do you mean that "mine" is not a "distinct" possessive pronoun, but only the genitive case of "I"? Couldn't one say the same thing for "my" then? (See possessive adjective for a Finnish example.) Also, could you please give an example of a "distinct" possessive pronoun in any of the few languages that have them? Thanks. PizzaMargherita 23:49, 27 December 2005 (UTC)

Yeah, I think you really meant to put this stuff in the possessive adjective article, but it looks like it's already there... PizzaMargherita 07:29, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

Ok, thanks for the clarification. I propose the following:

  1. We keep (in both articles) the remarks that some languages use the genitive case of personal pronouns to indicate possession instead of possessive adjective and pronouns
  2. We move the Finnish examples of both pages to this section of the possessive suffix, which is already linked anyway. That way we
    1. Avoid repetitions
    2. Keep all Finnish things in one place
    3. Don't have a section in articles supposedly talking about possessive pronouns/adjectives explaining with examples how some languages don't have any possessive pronouns/adjectives, because it may be misleading to some - well, it has been to me.

Thanks. PizzaMargherita 21:24, 28 December 2005 (UTC) Hope you like the results. PizzaMargherita 21:28, 30 December 2005 (UTC)

Dude. Why are you talking to yourself? is your account legit? Mrdthree 03:34, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

Assume good faith. PizzaMargherita 06:20, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

I suggest you get some evidence that a pronoun that is used as a possessive pronoun is not in fact a possessive pronoun. Like (1) a grammar book reference and (2) a finnish speaker. Mrdthree 03:36, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for your suggestion. PizzaMargherita 06:26, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia says mine is an adjective

mine. Mrdthree 03:39, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

Not anymore. Thanks for flagging this. PizzaMargherita 06:18, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] A question

What is the latin name for "possessive pronoun" ? Kristian Joensen 13:32, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Confusions galore

I hardly know where to start with this article. Its own start, perhaps:

A possessive pronoun is a part of speech that attributes ownership to someone or something. Like all other pronouns, it substitutes a noun phrase....

Oh? Consider: The infant died after she fell into the swimming pool. There was no fence around the pool, and the mistake was mine. How do I or did I "own" or "possess" the mistake?

Is "the boy" an NP or a DP? Linguists differ; there's something to be said for both points of view. If you think that it's an NP then, yes, a "possessive pronoun" substitutes for a NP. If you think it's a DP, then the "possessive pronoun" substitutes for a DP (indeed, you'll probably say it is a DP) and does not substitute for an NP.

Etc. -- Hoary 09:31, 22 September 2007 (UTC)

those are mine not yours. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.188.198.86 (talk) 12:55, 16 May 2008 (UTC)

Seems to me that your explanation is circular: you're explaining [or not] genitive case-marking by appeal to genitive case-marking. -- Hoary (talk) 13:18, 16 May 2008 (UTC)