ABSTRACT

 216. To a mind trained exclusively in Latin (or German) grammar such English constructions as “the Queen of England's power,” or “he took somebody else's hat,” must seem very preposterous; the word that ought to be in the genitive case (Queen, somebody) is put in the nominative or accusative, while in the one instance England, whose power is not meant, and in the other even an adverb, is put in the genitive case. Similarly, in the case of “words in apposition,” where it might be expected that each would be put in the genitive, as in “King Henry the Eighth's reign,” only one of them takes the genitive ending.