Double possessive case

Question

I am studying the possessive case from here.

The page explains there is also a double possessive, formed by:

owned thing + of + owner + 's

The first case is an indeterminative article:

This is a friend of David’s

But what is wrong with:

This is a friend of David

(without the 's at the end)?

Does this answer your question? Why say "of x's" instead of "of x"? Also What is the reason for the " 's " in the following context? and Double Possessive - two friends of hers and How do "Friend of P" and "Friend of P's" mean the inverse of each other? and probably many more. — FumbleFingers, Nov 25 '21 at 16:53
...plus there's my own question about this, as asked on ELU nearly 10 years ago (before ELL existed, I think). Why is it usually "friend of his", but no possessive apostrophe with "friend of Peter"? — FumbleFingers, Nov 25 '21 at 16:57
There's nothing wrong with it. Both constructions are possible, but the perspectives are different. In "a friend of David's" the perspective is that of the "David", whereas in "a friend of David the perspective is that of the friend, so that an appropriate gloss would have "h has equal d", where "h" stands for head (i.e. the nominal which the genitive determines) and "d" stands for dependent (i.e. the subject-determiner NP). We're more likely to have the latter. — BillJ, Nov 25 '21 at 17:54

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 25 '21 at 16:19

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They mean different things.

A friend of David is someone who likes or supports David. This usage is not associated with a living animate being, but rather (to use Lynne Truss' example) inanimate entities, like "a friend of the British Museum."

A friend of David's is someone whom David considers a friend, that is, someone he cares about and enjoys the company of.

answered Nov 25 '21 at 16:19

randomhead

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I don't know about likes or supports David. I agree with the British Museum example. – Lambie Nov 25 '21 at 16:32
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I don't know that many Brits worry about the 'a friend of David or David's' distinction. I note that saying a man was a 'friend of Dorothy' was a discreet way of saying he was gay since the 1920s, and that on cruise ships, onboard meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous were sometimes mentioned on noticeboards as meetings of 'friends of Bill W' (William Griffith Wilson was the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous). – Michael Harvey Nov 25 '21 at 16:51

Double possessive case

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