Possessive + gerund + object pronoun

Question

I'm reading The Great Gatsby and there's one part when Tom Buchanan is arguing by phone with George Wilson about a car, and Tom says the next:

Very well, then, I won't sell you the car at all ... I'm under no obligations to you at all ... and as for your bothering me about it at lunch time, I won't stand that at all!

the part:

[...] and as for your bothering me [...]

has a structure like:

possessive adjective + gerund + object pronoun

I had never seen such a construction, so my question is:
Is there something elided in the sentence, and what's the meaning of the sentence?

Thank you in advance.

The analagous his/him achieving a Cambridge degree is covered at Analysing clause elements and their function — Edwin Ashworth, Dec 29 '14 at 00:45
It's a subject noun phrase and it's marked as a possessive. I don't think that makes it an adjective. Subjects don't modify their verbs. — John Lawler, Dec 29 '14 at 01:20
@rogermue I don't get you, I had never seen such construction — Victor Castillo Torres, Dec 29 '14 at 04:29
A grammar is a tool as necessary as a dictionary. A pity that a lot of learners try to learn a foreign language without using a grammar. Perhaps the fault of schools which don't teach the use of a grammar. — rogermue, Dec 29 '14 at 04:37
@rogermue I don't have a grammar, could you recommend me one? — Victor Castillo Torres, Dec 29 '14 at 04:42
It is difficult to recommend grammars. I assume you are Spanish, so an English-Spanish grammar would be recommendable. Have a look at bookshops or amazon. There are English-English grammars, too. I can recommend John Eastwood, Oxford Guide to English Grammar. I would not recommend CGEL, the Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Not appropriate for learners. — rogermue, Dec 29 '14 at 04:55

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 29 '14 at 08:08

1

In school I was taught that gerunds take a possessive pronoun and that's that. But it kind of makes sense if you consider that by definition a gerund is a present participle masquerading as a noun. If we substitute an actual noun, we might get something like, "your disturbance [of] me at lunchtime." The subjective "you" would never fit in this construct, and thinking of "bothering" as a noun should help make this rule clear.

answered Dec 29 '14 at 08:08

moioci

4,678

I've been reading The Cambridge Grammar Of The English Language and I have the concept clearer, and your answer makes it even more. – Victor Castillo Torres Dec 29 '14 at 08:18

Possessive + gerund + object pronoun

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