where to put the possessive "s" with an appositive parenthetical

Question

Say I have a gym instructor called Anne and it's her birthday. I want to convey that to someone who doesn't know who Anne is in one sentence.

In speech, I would probably say, "it is Anne, my gym instructor's, birthday." But, in writing, that seems wrong; it puts the possessive "s" in the subclause only.

So what is the correct way to write a sentence like this? "It is Anne's, my gym instructor's, birthday"? "It is Anne's, my gym instructor, birthday"? Something else?

But seriously, there's nothing wrong with the possessive at the end of the subclause. Compare The king of England's crown, where the -s is at the end of the noun group. — Oliver Mason, Jun 08 '18 at 13:57
I don't think you should have a comma after *Anne* if you're going to use that as part of a longer string of words to be modified by the Saxon genitive apostrophe. Which by implication means you don't want the comma after the apostrophe either. — FumbleFingers, Jun 08 '18 at 14:00
Better to convert the descriptive subclause to a standard noun adjunct: "It is my gym instructor Anne's birthday." — Hellion, Jun 08 '18 at 14:03
""it is Anne, my gym instructor's, birthday." This is fine, in writing or speech. — Michael Harvey, Jun 08 '18 at 15:24
@ColinFine because it lets you avoid the issue entirely. :-) — Hellion, Jun 08 '18 at 15:56
I wanted to cite How does one use an apostrophe when introducing a person and their belonging? as a duplicate, because it specifically asks about the orthography of *Daniel runs into Nancy's, his sister's, bedroom.* (I might myself go for that "double genitive" as making the best of a bad job.) But it has no upvotes, so it's ineligible. — FumbleFingers, Jun 08 '18 at 16:43
@FumbleFingers I believe this question is a duplicate of the first post you mentioned - although having no upvotes on the answer is a shame - but not the second. — Tim Barclay, Jun 08 '18 at 20:21
@Hellion: so what if it lets you avoid the issue? Why does that make it better? It's not an issue for most English speakers, so why is it better to avoid it? — Colin Fine, Jun 09 '18 at 18:21

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 08 '18 at 14:02

4

There's nothing wrong with the possessive marker at the end. Compare The king of England's crown, where the -s is at the end of the noun group.

It does sound a bit more awkward if you have a whole apposition following the head noun, but syntactically it looks fine to me.

Or you could write It is my gym instructor Anne's birthday.

answered Jun 08 '18 at 14:02

Oliver Mason

3,244

Perhaps I'm mistaken but I always deem it correct to put a description of a person in a new clause within commas: "Edward, the King of England, has a crown". So in that instance, would it be "Edward, the King of England's, crown"? – Tim Barclay Jun 08 '18 at 20:25
@TimBarclay Yes, I would think so. – Oliver Mason Jun 11 '18 at 08:19
<< Anne, my gym instructor's, birthday >> and << The king of England's crown >> are different forms. We're guessing if we model one's behaviour on the other's. Have you a corroborating reference for 'There's nothing wrong with the possessive marker at the end '? – Edwin Ashworth Sep 18 '20 at 18:04

where to put the possessive "s" with an appositive parenthetical

1 Answers1

Linked