Quote:
Originally Posted by Johnny Hargreaves
According my little grammar book:
- 's is used for:
people or animals (the girl's name, the horse's mouth)
organizations (the government's decision)
time expressions (next week's exam, yesterday's milk)
after a singular noun ( my sister's room)
- of" for:
things (the roof of the house, the title of the book)
long word constructions (What's the title of the awesome new movie?)
Hope that helps.  |
But these are guidelines more than fixed rules. I still maintain that it is more a stylistic than a grammatical question. Can anyone assert that the following are either ungrammatical or even awkward??
* A man and a girl were killed in the accident. The name of the girl has not been released because her parents have not yet been notified.
* The ship's bow was damaged in the collision.
* The awesome new movie's premiere will be held next Saturday.
Of the different sorts of phrase quoted above, the only one that does not allow both constructions is the type "yesterday's milk", where "of" is impossible.
Speaking of milk, it would be an interesting exercise to construct sentences using both "milk's" and "of milk" to see what the usage is. My gut-feeling is that in many cases both are possible:
the health benefits of milk / milk's health benefits
But what about the milk of human kindness??