The use of articles and attributes with nouns in the possessive case

When the Possessive is used in the meaning of belonging (possession), all that stands before the possessive noun refers to this noun (and not to the following head noun): "the young man's companion" denotes that the man is young (not his companion); "some child's cries" = "the cries of some child" (not "some cries"). Whatever refers to the head noun, must be placed after the possessive: "the man's young companion" denotes "the young companion', while "the" refers to "man". Since no articles or pronouns can be used after a possessive form, an Absolute possessive is used if we need some determiner before the head-noun: "a friend of Peter's", "that friend of Peter's", "some friends of Peter's". That is also the reason why we say "Pushkin's' last poems", without an article and with "last" placed after the possessive (otherwise "the" and last' would refer to the proper name). Note "the great Pushkin's poems", where "the" and "great" both refer to the proper name (the article appears due to the use of an attribute with the proper noun). Note also "yesterday's sad news", where the absence of article is due to the peculiarities of the word 'yesterday'.

The picture is quite different when the possessive is used in its qualitative meaning. In this case all that stands before the possessive, refers to the following head noun (not to the possessive noun): "a children's shop" = "a shop for children". This happens because 'children's' here is very much like a qualitative adjective (cf. "a childish joke"). In this meaning no attribute can be placed after the possessive; hence "a new children's shop" (= a new shop for children), where the article and attribute both "jump over" the possessive noun to refer to the head word. Naturally, when the article means "one", it refers to the possessive noun denoting a measure: "a mile’s distance" = one mile's distance; "an hour’s work" = work for one hour. In all other cases the article refers to the head noun, as does the attribute: "a pleasant two hours" walk" = a pleasant walk for two hours. Sometimes, however, the homonymous character of such structures makes it difficult to determine the precise relationship; thus, in "Now you must have a good night's sleep", the attribute 'good' may be referred either to "sleep" or to "night".

The article in such phrases can also be omitted ("after two hours" walk"). Note also a change of number forms in phrases like "a woman's hat" (= for a woman, i.e. for one woman) – but: "two women's hats" (= two hats for women, not for one woman). As different from that, we say: "a women's magazine" (for women as a class, not for one person as with personal belongings like "hat", "coat"). In phrases like "goat's (cow's) milk" no article is used as no individual animal is meant (the possible spelling is "cows" milk). On the other hand, in "a goat’s head appeared in the window" we mean one particular individual animal ("the head of a goat"). Note also ambiguous cases in "another woman's hat", which may mean either 'the hat belonging to another woman' or "one more hat designed to be worn by a woman". In real speech such ambiguous phrases are usually avoided, so there is no need to take great pains to analyse this.

ADJECTIVIZED NOUNS

As the English language has very few suffixes forming relative adjectives it freely uses adjectivized nouns to indicate that the object denoted by the noun is characterized through its relation to another object .

An adjectivized noun is a noun turned into an adjective only in a given sentence, only, so to say, for the time being, without entering the vocabulary of the English language as a newly-formed regular adjective. It is an instance of provisional conversion, conversion for the occasion.

In the sentence It was a purely family gathering the word family is an adjectivized noun, but in the dictionary this word is marked as a noun. Similarly, in the sentence They receive evening and weekly papers the word evening is an adjectivized noun; in the dictionary it is listed as a noun.

But there is, of course, no hard and fast line of demarcation between an adjectivized noun and a regular adjective formed from a noun by means of conversion, such as chief, choice, gold, cotton, etc.; an adjectivized noun may in the course of time turn into a regular adjective, may develop degrees of comparison as is the case, with such converted adjectives as chief and choice (originally only nouns): the chiefest trouble, the choicest company.

An adjectivized noun used attributively may be coordinated with regular adjectives (asyndetically or by means of a coordinative conjunction) which shows that it is treated as an adjective:

He said it in a brisk, business tone (the adjectivized noun business is coordinated asyndetically with the adjective brisk). They receive London and provincial papers (the adjectivized noun London is coordinated with the adjective provincial by means of the coordinative conjunction and). Do you prefer country or urban life? (the adjectivized noun country is coordinated with the adjective urban by means of the coordinative conjunction or). Mounted and footmilitia kept order in the streets. The children greatly enjoyed the open air, healthy life of the camp.

The prop-word one which is used in English when an adjective used as an attribute stands without its head-noun, may also follow an adjectivized noun which thus clearly shows its adjectival nature:

That muslin dress is my best summer one. The house was a four-storey one. In place of the old wooden house they have built a beautiful stone one.

Her lower lip had a way of thrusting the middle of her top one upward. (Hardy.)

Adjectivized nouns may be modified by adverbs as regular

adjectives are:

It was a purely family gathering (the adjectivized noun family is modified by the adverb purely). He wrote some really first-class plays (the adjectivized noun first-class is modified by the adverb really). We objected on purely business grounds. The best books by Soviet writers are of truly world significance.

In such cases as a brick house, a stone bridge, an oak table, the words brick, stone, and oak are regarded as adjectivized nouns analogous to regular adjectives denoting the material of which the thing is made: a woollen dress, a wooden house, an oaken chair (now rare).

Some of these words denoting material, formerly adjectivized nouns, have now turned into regular adjectives, and are marked as such in the dictionary: silk, cotton, gold, silver. These may be used not only attributively but also predicatively:

The ring is gold. The dress is silk. The shirt is cotton. (But not: The house is stone. The chair is oak.)

In all the attributive phrases (adjectivized noun + head-noun) the two elements are regarded as two separate sense-units, as two words: the adjectivized noun, as a word denoting quality, the head-noun, as a word denoting substance:

Somewhere in the distance sheep bells tinkled and in the shrubbery a thrush was singing its evening song. The rye fields began just outside their fence. The Moscow Underground is the most beautiful underground railway in the world. Research work is carried out in our institutes. By carrying out the plan for the transformation of nature our people are making a fresh contribution to world civilization.

But there are instances when both elements are thought of as constituting one idea, when they are blended into one sense-unit. Then we speak of a compound noun:

The nearest railway station is a mile's distance from our house. Secretary General demanded the seating of People's China in the Security Council. The second World Congress of Partisans of Peace issued an address to the United Nations Organization.