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It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it
-- Upton Sinclair

Why "... his not understanding it", and not "... him not understanding it"?

I thought that the meaning was "... when his salary depends about (the man) not understanding (something)"

WoJ
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  • If you google possessives genitives before gerunds you will find numerous explanations of these constructions – Ronald Sole May 09 '21 at 08:42
  • @RonaldSole: thanks for the pointer. https://getitwriteonline.com/articles/possessive-case-gerunds/ was very clear for me. – WoJ May 09 '21 at 09:02

1 Answers1

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Your comprehension is correct. Here "his" is used because "the man not understanding something" is considered as an "attribute" of the man.

function2
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