--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Exu Yangi" <exuyangi@...> wrote:
> --- In cybalist@..., David Watson wrote:
> >
> >But we write the genitive plural in English as -s',
> >don't we, and yet we don't write "I work days'"?
>
> And your point is? Go almost any where in the US (other than
> the actual places that have educations)
Well places can't actually have educations, only a
human being can, and it's usually possible to find
individuals of varying levels of education in just
about any place you go. Moreover, I've heard that
they speak English in countries besides the U.S.,
including England, if I'm not mistaken, though with
what to my ear is an odd English accent. ;^)
> and tell them you want them you want to watch their genitives.
> You may get shot.
Well I've managed to live in the U.S. for almost
forty years now without having been shot at yet, much
of that time dispensing all manner of unsolicited
advice. ;^)
Anyway, I am talking specifically about so called
correct English usage, and not just that of the U.S.
It's been many years since I attended English class
in high school, but I'm pretty sure that it isn't
considered correct to write "I work nights'".
Clearly 'nights' here is indeed acting as a temporal
adverb, even though it isn't completely equivalent
to "I work nightly", but rather "I work the night
shift". Nevertheless I don't think it's necessary
for it to take the genitive in order function in
this way.
Consider the following sentence, uttered by a waiter
in a large hotel, whose wife is also a waiter in that
hotel.
"I work dining rooms, while my wife works counters."
Which is equivalent to "I work in the dining rooms
(of the hotel), while my wife works at the counters."
> Most people havn't the faintest idea of what a genitive is,
Well they do have some idea, at least subconsciously,
or they wouldn't use an [s], [z], or [&z] ending in
their speech where required to indicate the genitive,
however they might spell that ending when writing.
David