1

I was answering an exercise on the internet when i come across this question:

When I was a child, Grandpa was unhappy with (me/my) excavating his rose garden in the hopes of finding dinosaur bones.

Based on the site, the correct answer is my, which is a possessive pronoun. I don't understand why we should use a possessive pronoun in this sentence. Please explain why. Thank you

Jason Bassford
  • 38,040
Hatchi
  • 27
  • 2
    Both genitive "my" and accusative "me" are fine. It all boils down to style, with the genitive considered more formal than the accusative, and favoured by older speakers. Preps like "with" typically take nouns as complement, so "excavating" would traditionally be treated as a verbal noun here, i.e. a gerund. – BillJ Aug 07 '20 at 09:20
  • 3
    Does this answer your question? When is a gerund supposed to be preceded by a possessive adjective/determiner? – Laurel Aug 07 '20 at 10:48
  • 1
    Definitely not myself as in your heading! – Kate Bunting Aug 07 '20 at 11:32
  • @KateBunting Yes, that's an easy way to wind up myself as well – BoldBen Aug 07 '20 at 11:55
  • 1
    In the 19th century, nearly everybody writing standard English would have used my in this sentence. English grammar has evolved, and today, I believe the majority of people would use me. However, there are some prescriptive grammarians and ESL courses that still adhere to 19th century grammar in this construction. You only need to use a possessive pronoun if you are taking English tests, or are preparing to be a time traveler and don't want to give yourself away. – Peter Shor Aug 07 '20 at 12:26
  • 1
    It would be immediately obvious which to use if it were *excavation of* rather than excavating. – Jason Bassford Aug 07 '20 at 15:40

3 Answers3

2

Taking a stab: We know that whatever comes after the word "with" has to be a noun, and essentially has to be the reason why Grandpa is unhappy. If Grandpa was just disgruntled by the person writing in first person singular, then "me" would suffice, but technically it is the action of excavating, or the nominalization of the verb, and so the possessive pronoun is more correct, since me is not a possessive pronoun. I am stretching my syntax knowledge here.

N. Haʻalilio Solomon
  • 29
  • You are basically right, "my" is the technically correct form although it is not the one that is normally used in colloquial speech. However just because we expect a noun it doesn't mean that the noun has to be a single word, it can also be a noun phrase. Think of "Grandpa was unhappy with the state of his roof following the gales", "the state of his roof following the gales" is a phrase acting as a noun. The same thing applies to "my digging up his rose garden looking for dinosaur bones", the pronoun 'my' is part of the noun phrase rather than being the object of the verb "unhappy with". – BoldBen Aug 07 '20 at 11:53
  • 2
    My is no more "technically correct" than me. Both are correct, and the choice of which to use is personal, – John Lawler Aug 07 '20 at 16:22
1

When I was a child, Grandpa was unhappy with [(me/my) excavating his rose garden in the hopes of finding dinosaur bones].

Both forms are fine. The pronoun, either "me" or "my", is the subject, and the verb phrase "excavating his rose garden in the hopes of finding dinosaur bones" is the predicate.

The choice between gentitive "my" and accusative "me" depends on style, the genitive being characteristic of fairly formal style, and favoured by older speakers.

Since prepositions typically take a noun phrase as object, traditional grammar insisted that the so-called 'gerund' was correct by virtue of it being a 'verbal noun'. But those days are gone, and most people accept accusative "me" as a less-formal alternant.

BillJ
  • 12,832
-1

To give practical examples:

She does not like my jacket. -> my jacket is a noun phrase and object of "like"

*She does not like me jacket -> obviously wrong.

She does not like singing (singing is a gerund and object of "like")= She does not like the action of singing (the object of "like") (The context will tell you if she does not like to sing, or if she does not like to hear anyone who is singing.)

She does not like {my singing} (Verbal noun phrase and object of "like") = She does not like {the sound that I make when I sing.}

She does not like me singing = She does not like me when I sing (but she might like you if you sing.) Correctly, this would have a comma after "me". (It is also possible to understand this as "when she sings, she does not like me.")

In prescriptive terms, only "my singing" is correct, but so many people use "me singing" that "singing is understood as a post-positional adjective qualifying "me" = "She does not like the singing me."

Greybeard
  • 41,737
  • Ever since I was taught the my verbing form, I thought it must be right, but bookish. I know educated people saying "I felt badly," to be more correct. And friends correcting "I'm good, thanks" into I'm well, which mean different things. So munna trust my own ear. – Yosef Baskin Jul 18 '22 at 12:15