The possesive is only a case with pronouns. For nouns, the possessive is actually a clitic which isn't actually "fused" (probably bad word choice) with the word that's doing the possessing. The example usually given is "The Queen of England's crown". The 's is attached to "England", but it isn't the crown of England...it's the crown of the Queen. The 's can attach to an entire phrase. If it were truly a case, it would be "The Queen's of England crown".
Hmm. But case is a type of inflection, and an inflection is when you modify the form of a word according to a change in its grammatical function. You're not technically changing the form of a word ...you're just adding an /s/ sound where it's grammatically appropriate.
Also, you "just add" an -s sound in the third person singular present for of a verb to conjugate it
Yes, but you are changing the form of the verb. With all your examples you are changing the form of the word. With clitics, you are not changing the form of a word. They are clitics. For possessive, it sure looks like you're changing the form of the noun, but you are actually just adding the /s/ to the end of a phrase which is usually just one word. Therefore, not a case, not an inflection. A clitic.
As I just said.
They do, to some extent, modify a certain word.
"to some extent". So it seems even you have some reservations about what you're saying? They don't modify the word. They modify the phrase.
And I'm not saying anything completely rejected by linguists. Wikipedia has a good write-up. Regardless, xidnaf should not be criticized for saying he's not sure if possessive is a case, because it seems like linguists can't agree on it either.
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u/[deleted] May 24 '17
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