ABSTRACT
Summary: It seems that choosing the right words to discuss the stuff we own is just as much of a burden as owning it in the first place. English has two main grammatical mechanisms for expressing possession, namely of (the legs of the table) and ’s (his father’s daughter). Foreign learners are generally taught that animacy dictates which form to use: with animate (living) possessors use ’s and with inanimate (non-living) possessors use of. In reality, possession is much more complicated as some possessors do not allow a choice between the two forms, while others seem to involve many more factors than animacy. Then there is also the problem that we sometimes express possession in ways which do not involve of or ’s and conversely, that of and ’s can sometimes be used to discuss cases which do not involve ownership.
