possessive form-- one of our professors
mdolfan
The following appeared in a college faculty memo:
"One [one of many professors on the faculty] of our professors [add
whatever word you wish to complete the possessive]..."
Which is correct: professors' or professor's?
Thanks,
Laurel
mdo...@fast.net
Thomas Schenk
mdolfan wrote:
>
> The following appeared in a college faculty memo:
>
> "One [one of many professors on the faculty] of our professors [add
> whatever word you wish to complete the possessive]..."
>
> Which is correct: professors' or professor's?
As far as I can see, all one has to do is rephrase the sentence with an
alternative form of the possessive, or genitive, and the solution
becomes clear enough.
"The writings of one (singular) of our professors (plural)" = "One
(singular) of our professors'(plural) writings." (The singular subject,
incidentally, has nothing to do with anything. I just threw that in to
confuse you.)
Regards,
Tom
--
*******************
Dr Thomas M Schenk
Laguna Beach, California
Padraig Breathnach
mdolfan challenged us:
> The following appeared in a college faculty memo:
>
> "One [one of many professors on the faculty] of our professors [add
> whatever word you wish to complete the possessive]..."
>
> Which is correct: professors' or professor's?
>
It looks to me as if neither is correct because the "one" would appear to
qualify whatever is possessed rather than the professor. Omitting the
apostrophe so as to remain neutral on the subject-matter of your enquiry,
consider:
"One of our professors problems."
It seems clear to me that we are pointed towards the idea of one problem
rather than one professor.
Back to the drawing board! It may have a formal tone, but what do you think
of "The problems of one of our professors . . ."?
PB
Padraig Breathnach
Wayne Bartlett wrote:
>
> Contrary to the posting of a previous poster here, the possessive is
> required, depending on which you mean. "One of our professors
problems..."
> cannot be correct under any circumstances.
>
Please read before you write! I never suggested that it was correct.
PB
John Dean
Irrelevant anecdote -- Sir Thomas Beecham lit a cigar in a non-smoking
railway carriage. Woman in carriage remonstrates to no effect, concluding
with 'I'll have you know I am one of the Directors wives' (punctuation
omitted to heighten punch-line (historical note - railways
pre-nationalisation had boards of management)) --'Ho,' replies Sir Beecham
(for it is He), ' I wouldn't care if you were the Director's only wife'
mdolfan <mdo...@fast.net> wrote in article
<01bcf3b2$7cef0a20$4495f5ce@mdolfan>...
> The following appeared in a college faculty memo:
>
> "One [one of many professors on the faculty] of our professors [add
> whatever word you wish to complete the possessive]..."
>
> Which is correct: professors' or professor's?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Laurel
> mdo...@fast.net
>
>
>
Wayne Bartlett
Either can be correct.
"One of our professor's problems..." refers to one of many problems that a
particular professor has.
"One of our professors' problems..." refers to a problem that several
professors share.
Contrary to the posting of a previous poster here, the possessive is
required, depending on which you mean. "One of our professors problems..."
cannot be correct under any circumstances.
Thanks...Wayne
Charles A. Lee
Dear Laurel,
On 17 Nov 1997 23:28:00 GMT, "mdolfan" <mdo...@fast.net> wrote:
>The following appeared in a college faculty memo:
>
>"One [one of many professors on the faculty] of our professors [add
>whatever word you wish to complete the possessive]..."
>
>Which is correct: professors' or professor's?
>
We need the whole sentence or perhaps the whole paragraph to decide if
the author was referring to something belonging to a single professor
or to a group of professors.
"One fault of our professors' submissions is chronic lateness."
(multiple professors, multiple submissions, frequently late)
"One of our professor's shortcomings is chronic lateness."
(one prof who is late)
Scott Shepherd
> "One of our professor's shortcomings is chronic lateness."
means we have one professor, who has many shortcomings, one of which is
lateness.
But if we have many professors, one of whom had a prize-winning book, how
can we say it?
One of our professor's book won the Pulitzer Prize
is obviously wrong, but
One of our professors' book
is no good either, since it uses a plural possessive for a singular owner. And
One of our professors's book
probably won't wash, although it most closely approximates the logic of
[One of our professors]'s book
We're better off avoiding the possessive altogether:
A book one of our professors wrote won the Pulitzer Prize.