SOME CONSIDERATIONS ON INDEPENDENT AND ABSOLUTE GENITIVE CONSTRUCTIONS
SOME CONSIDERATIONS ON INDEPENDENT AND ABSOLUTE GENITIVE CONSTRUCTIONS

Summary/Abstract: The present paper considers several aspects when the genitive is contextually employed independently, hence occurring without a following head noun. This entails that it may be used nominally as it can perform the regular functions of nouns since the complement of the genitive is often missing or elliptic. Even though the head noun is ellipted, it may be easily recovered from the context. However, since the missing word is not always necessary in the context, absolute genitives are not typically considered elliptical constructions; these constructions can be understood without a head noun. Unlike absolute genitives, independent genitives are fully fledged nominal components in which the possessive modifies an elliptic head noun. The lack of the head noun distinguishes independent genitives; nevertheless, these constructions are elliptical since it is possible to recover the relevant head noun from the context.

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