Index for August | Back Issues Index | TLT Main Page | Logout |

The Language Teacher
August 2002

The Problem of Possession

Charles Kowalski

Tokai University

"Possession is nine-tenths of the law," the saying goes, and teachers and learners of English in Japan may feel that this is indeed the case, at least as far as the law of grammar is concerned. The Japanese case particle の, with the wide range of meanings it conveys, frequently causes problems for Japanese students trying to express themselves in English, particularly its correlation with the English possessive, which shares some functions with it but is far from an exact equivalent. This paper is an attempt to help teachers clarify this issue for themselves and their students, by focusing on the English possessive and the Japanese case particle の, then presenting a contrastive analysis of the two, and finally giving an overview of some strategies students and teachers can employ to help make the transition from Japanese thought to English expression easier.

The English possessive

Aside from the possessive forms of personal pronouns, there are two ways of expressing the possessive form of noun phrases in English: the inflectional ('s affixed to the end of a noun phrase) and the periphrastic (joining two noun phrases with the preposition of). According to Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman (1999), the meanings expressed by these forms include:

These are listed roughly in frequency order; N. Han's unpublished research paper (1996, quoted in Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman, 1999) indicated that the first two, possession and agency, account for a majority of the possessive forms occurring in spoken English. This list is not an exhaustive one; other categories could be added, such as time (yesterday's news, the events of last year). The list also confines itself to meanings that can be expressed using either of the two forms; adding those that can be expressed using one but not the other could expand the list to include new categories such as contents of a vessel ("a bottle of wine" but not "*a wine's bottle"). This list, however, embraces the most common meanings of the English possessive, and is sufficient for the present purpose.

The Japanese case particle の

Japanese speakers learning English, and vice versa, are often taught that the Japanese case particle の is equivalent to the English possessive. This is a useful rule of thumb, particularly in the case of the inflectional possessive 's, which retains the original word order (ゆきの車 = Yuki's car). In addition, the Japanese の and the English possessive overlap in all the functions listed above: possession (as in the example above), agency (漱石の小説 Soseki's novels), relationships (鈴木さんのお兄さん Suzuki's elder brother), traits (彼女の目her eyes), representation (松前先生の像 the statue of Professor Matsumae), evaluation (時間の価値 the value of time), eponymity (自由の女神 the Goddess of Liberty), measurement (三人の博士 three wise men), nominalization (時計の動き the motion of the clock), and time (明日の会議 tomorrow's meeting).

So far, so good. The list, however, does not end there; there are numerous other meanings conveyed by the particle の. Kondo & Takano (1986), Drohan (1991), and a sample taken from a Japanese-language corpus (Uemura, 1997), together yielded the following additional meanings for の as a case particle (ignoring its use as a final particle):

Affiliation: 高校の先生 a high-school teacher, 早稲田大学の教授 a professor at Waseda University

Apposition: 地下鉄の東西線 the Tozai line subway, 魔女のきき Kiki, the witch

Description: personal characteristics (金髪のモデル a blonde model, 韓国人の学生さん a Korean student); material (革のベルト a leather belt); color (ワイン色のマフラー a burgundy scarf); shape (正方形の箱 a square box)

Origin: 青森県のりんご apples from Aomori, 北海道のお土産 souvenirs from Hokkaido

Purpose: 頭痛の薬 medicine for headaches, 初心者のテキスト a text for beginners

Relation: 友達の作ったクッキー the cookies my friend made, ジャックの建てた家 the house that Jack built

Spatial relation: direction (西の方 to the west); location (学校の隣 next to the school)

Subject matter: 文学の本 a book on literature, 剣道の達人 a kendo expert

Topic: 日本のこと知りたい方 someone who wants to learn about Japan, 夕べのことですが About last night…

Thus, the English possessive corresponds to some but not all of the functions of の(Table 1).

Table 1: Overlap of the English possessive with the Japanese case particle の


Affilation
Apposition
Description
Origin
Possession
Agency
Relationships
Traits
Representation
Eponymity
Evaluation
Measurement
Nominalization
Time
English possessive + Japanese particle の
Purpose
Relation
Spatial relation
Subject matter
Topic
Japanese particle の only

The above list is not exhaustive either; both Drohan and Kondo & Takano (op. cit.) classify several more uses for の, including listing (何のかのと what with one thing and another) and nominalization of verbs (起きるのが早い it's too early to get up). These and other functions particular to Japanese grammar, without even remote equivalents in English, do not generally present problems; the functions listed, which the learner might reasonably expect to be equivalent between Japanese and English, are the most common sources of error.

Contrastive analysis

The difficulty Japanese speakers experience in translating the case particle の into English is not surprising, considering that according to Stockwell et al.'s hierarchy of difficulty (1965, quoted in Larsen-Freeman & Long, 1991), "splits", in which one pattern in the L1 corresponds to two or more in the L2, are the most difficult patterns of all for second language learners to master. This section will attempt to provide some guidelines concerning the choice between the two main forms of the possessive, as well as the other patterns in English supporting the various functions of の, along with examples of how learners who misuse or overuse the possessive may produce ungrammatical, awkward or ambiguous sentences. (Examples marked with an asterisk are taken from Asao, 1996; unmarked ones are from the author's experience.)

The inflectional vs. periphrastic possessive

Phon Khampang's 1973 survey of native English speakers (quoted in Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman, 1999, p. 315), designed to address the question of "How do you know when to use 's, and when to use of?" yielded results generally consistent with the rule of thumb commonly taught to English language learners, that 's is preferred when the head noun is animate: "Mary's husband", "the cat's toy". In addition, 's was preferred with inanimate head nouns when the noun could be viewed as performing an action: "the train's arrival was delayed". The authors added that 's constructions are also often seen with double possessives ("John's brother's wife"), nouns of special interest to human activity ("the game's history", "London's water supply") and natural phenomena ("the earth's rotation"). Of, however, was preferred in nearly all other cases involving inanimate head nouns (except in certain fixed collocations resembling attributive noun constructions, such as "women's university" and "ship's doctor"), as well as animate head nouns when the noun phrase was especially long ("the brother of the lying, cheating, no-good snake in the grass that stole my horse").

The inflectional possessive is the more convenient for Japanese learners, being both shorter and a closer syntactic parallel to the Japanese の. This leads to overuse, especially with inanimate head nouns, resulting in constructions like "there's temple, house's roof and so on*" and "traveling's image is fun*". (In some cases, students show an inclination in the opposite direction, using the periphrastic possessive where the inflectional is called for: "tomorrow is birthday of my boyfriend*".) While there are several exceptions to the general rule of "'s with animate head nouns, of in other cases", as shown above, students who follow this rule of thumb have a better chance of using the possessive correctly.

Attributive nouns

Many of the の constructions in Japanese correspond to attributive noun constructions in English; purpose ("cold medicine") and description ("gold medal", "baseball team", "division manager") usually fall into this category, and affiliation ("university professor") and apposition ("the Tozai Line subway") sometimes do as well.

According to Lewis (1993), the attributive noun construction is among the most underused by English-language learners, and lack of awareness of this pattern often results in cumbersome constructions like "arrangements for the traveling" rather than "travel arrangements" (p. 143). This should not be true in Japan, for two reasons: first, an equivalent construction exists in Japanese; and second, numerous English attributive noun collocations have found their way into Japanese as katakana loanwords (コンピューター・グラフィックス computer graphics). Nevertheless, Japanese learners remain among those who underuse the attributive noun construction, inserting an extraneous possessive instead ("the homestay's family was OK*", "I have pollen's allergy"), which is particularly noticeable with descriptions ("plants of cucumbers*" for "cucumber plants"). In such cases, the problem can be addressed by a simple rule of thumb: "Say the same thing without the 's, and you have a better chance of sounding natural."

Adjectives

Often, の constructions in Japanese correspond to adjectives in English, especially for description (木の机 = "wooden desk"; 茶色の目の少女 = "brown-eyed girl"). When a student uses a possessive construction where an adjective is called for, it can lead to utterances like "Last month, I had the thing of sadness*".

In particular, affiliation is frequently shown in English with proper adjectives; while neither "the government of Japan" or "Japan's government" is unacceptable for 日本の政府, "the Japanese government" is more concise than the first and sounds more natural than the second (on the principle that 's is dispreferred with inanimate head nouns). To prevent errors in this area, it is necessary for students first to know about proper adjectives, and second, to realize that they take the place of the Japaneseの construction and do not require an additional possessive (which results in errors like "talent of Japanese usually go to Hawaii*" and "I can learn about living way of American*").

Prepositions

Japanese の constructions are often represented in English by prepositions other than "of". Examples include: for for purpose ("questions for discussion"); from for origin ("apples from Aomori"); at for affiliation ("a professor at Waseda University"); on or about for subject matter ("a book [on/about] Buddhism"); and at, in, or on for location. (Location is also often expressed by compound prepositions, like next to; this presents a double problem for Japanese learners thinking in terms not only of the possessive but of Japanese word order; thus "the coffee shop is next to my house" can become "the coffee shop is my house's…隣?")

The question of when to use which preposition could be the subject of a whole separate book (or at least a sizeable portion of a book, as in Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman, 1999, pp. 401-424, or Swan, 1995, pp. 444-457). Preposition distribution is and always has been one of the greatest headaches for learners of English, and summarizing all the vagaries of English prepositions into a few concise rules is all but impossible. Learners who are aware that の will generally correspond to one of a limited list of prepositions in English, however, have a better chance of expressing themselves accurately. Relative clauses. In some cases, の is used between the embedded subject and verb of a relativized object clause. This appears in English as a relative clause, with the relative pronoun either present ("the present that I bought") or deleted ("the present I bought").

Appositives

When の denotes apposition, it can be translated directly as an appositive, placed either before or after the noun phrase (友人の志村さん = "my friend Mr. Shimura" or "Mr. Shimura, my friend", but not "my friend's Mr. Shimura").

Pedagogical implications

The preceding sections have undoubtedly presented more information about possession than the reader ever wanted to know. All this has been by way of exploring the diagnosis of errors in translating の constructions; this section will focus on their treatment.

Presentation

An important first step in dealing with の errors is to raise students' awareness of the basic rule that の does not always correspond to the possessive in English, and introduce them to the various other expressions used in English for conveying the same meanings. Table 2 is a rough guide to the non-possessive equivalents of の in English. The rules, of course, are not hard and fast; invariably, some expressions will straddle the boundaries of the categories as presented, but an outline of the rules is provided as a general reference.

Table 2: Uses of the case particle の not corresponding to the English possessive


Use of _ Example English equivalent English example Possible errors
Origin 北海道のお土産 Preposition souvenirs from Hokkaido Hokkaido's souvenirs
Spatial relation 家の隣 next door to my house my house's next door
Purpose 頭痛の薬 Preposition or attributive noun medicine for headaches
headache medicine
medicine of headaches
headache's medicine
Subject matter 園芸の本 gardening books
books on/about gardening
books of gardening
gardening's books
Affiliation 早稲田大学の教授
韓国の学生
Preposition or proper adjective a professor at Waseda University
a Korean student
Waseda University's professor
Korea's student
Description 白髪の老人
革のベルト
Adjective or attributive noun a white-haired old man
a leather belt
a white hair's old man
a leather's belt
Relation 友達の作ったクッキー Relative clause the cookies my friend made my friend's made cookies
Apposition 主人公のフォレスト・ガンプ Appositive the hero, Forrest Gump a hero's Forrest Gump

A more inductive way of calling attention to the gap between the two is to present a series of examples, in a meaningful context, of the various English equivalents of の, and have students formulate their own rules (with some guidance from the teacher when necessary). Providing a visual framework as a memory aid will also be helpful.

Practice

Once students' attention has been called to the gap between の and its English equivalents, this awareness can be reinforced in the classroom through activities or games of the multiple-choice variety requiring students to choose from among various の parallels. Encouraging students to self-monitor, paying attention to mistranslations of の in their own speaking and writing, can also be beneficial; as Oxford (1990) points out: "Tracking the cause of the problem, such as overgeneralization from a native language rule, or inappropriate verbatim translation, helps learners understand more about the new language or about their own use of learning strategies" (p. 161)

One technique that can be used for independent practice is E-J-E translation (adapted from Ishii, 2000). Students read an English text of interest to them, at or slightly beyond their reading level, translating mentally into Japanese as they read. When they come across a phrase that translates as a の construction, they copy the English sentence into a notebook or onto a flashcard, and write their own Japanese version on a different page or column of the notebook or the reverse side of the card. When sufficient time has passed, students can review by first looking at the Japanese version (with the English original concealed) and mentally translating back into English, then checking their translation against the original. These can be reviewed at gradually increasing intervals to establish the patterns in long-term memory (Oxford, 1990, pp. 66-67). This technique provides learners with practice in translating Japanese の constructions into English, as well as a way to verify the accuracy of their translations independently of the teacher.

Use

It would not be easy, or even necessarily desirable, to construct an exercise that would give students the opportunity to produce meaningful and relevant utterances containing all the English equivalents of の. Certain aspects, however, can be worked on one at a time. For example, family or business introductions ("This is my aunt's husband Yoichiro Sato, a history teacher at Yoshikawa High School") would provide a context for relationships, description, apposition, and affiliation. Requesting specific items from someone about to go shopping or on a trip could provide a context for origin, description, material, purpose and other functions.

Journal writing provides a context in which students will frequently need to use many of the equivalents of の. An excerpt from Ishihara (2001): "My friend Brad showed me a picture of his new girlfriend…I wish I had one like her" (p. 194), for example, contains at least three uses of の (apposition, possession, and representation) in one sentence.

As students use these various patterns more often in speaking and writing, the scaffolding provided by rules and translation techniques should cease to be necessary; the ultimate goal is to have the correct pattern available for immediate recall, bypassing the L1 entirely if possible. Until students reach that level, however, the rules of equivalency and practice techniques are provided as intermediate steps. The more practice students have with these patterns in context, the better able they will be to use them with confidence, until they can say about all the various English equivalents for theの construction: "No problem!"

Acknowledgement

Thanks to Yuki Takahashi for her valuable comments on the first draft.

References

Asao, K. (1996). Corpus of English by Japanese learners. Tokai University. Available: www.lb.u-tokai.ac.jp/lcorpus (February 4, 2002).
Celce-Murcia, M. & Larsen-Freeman, D. (1999). The grammar book (2nd ed.) Boston: Heinle & Heinle.
Drohan, F.G. (1991). A handbook of Japanese usage. Rutland, VT: Tuttle.
Ishihara, M. (2001). Eigo de nikki wo kaite miru. Tokyo: Beret Books.
Ishii, T. (2000). Eigoryoku wo ageru jissen benkyoho. Tokyo: Beret Books.
Kondo, I. & Takano, F. (1986). Shogakukan Progressive Japanese-English Dictionary. Tokyo: Shogakukan.
Larsen-Freeman, D. & Long, M. (1991). An introduction to second language acquisition research. London: Addison Wesley Longman.
Lewis, M. (1993). The Lexical Approach. Hove, UK: Language Teaching Publications.
Oxford, R. (1990). Language learning strategies. Boston: Heinle & Heinle.
Stockwell, R., Bowen, J. & Martin, J. (1965). The grammatical structures of English and Spanish. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Swan, M. (1995). Practical English usage (2nd ed.) Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Uemura, R. (1997). Hypermedia corpus of spoken Japanese. Fukuoka Institute of Technology. Available: http://corpus.fit.ac.jp (February 4, 2002).



All materials on this site are copyright ©2003 by JALT and their respective authors.
For more information on JALT, visit the JALT National Website

Index for August |
JALT Publications  | TLT  | JALT Journal  | Other Publications |
Contact Webmaster |