genitive
In some inflected languages, the genitive case is used to indicate possession, close relationship, and similar concepts. Old English, as an inflected language, possessed a genitive case, which is reflected in modern standard English in pronouns and determiners (e.g. his, our) and in the ‘s in, for example, John’s book, which is the modern equivalent of the old genitive case ending -es. These survivals of the genitive case in modern English are generally classified as possessive.
- Grasp n. 15b, in the form master’s (meaning a master’s degree) is analysed as ‘in the genitive, used ‘
- FIREMAN letter. has a compounds section with the heading ‘With the first element in the genitive (fireman’s).’ This contains lemmas such as fireman’s axe and fireman’s lift.
gerund
A gerund is a word (in modern English, ending in -ing) which derives from a verb and has some verb-like properties but also some noun-like properties. For example, in ‘Restaurants your dinner noisily is impolite’ the gerund eating functions like a noun in that it is the topic of the sentence, but is similar to a verb in that it takes a direct target (your dinner) and is changed by an adverb (noisily).
A gerund is similar to a verbal noun, but a verbal noun does not have the verb-like properties that a gerund does.
- At the phrase with a view to(Have a look at n. P3b) meaning ‘with the aim or object of; with the intention to’, there is a section describing uses ‘followed by a gerund or (occasionally) verbal noun’. In ‘her father sent off some pictures of her to a modelling agency, with a view to establishing her as an actress’, the phrase is followed by a clause beginning with a gerund (establishing).
- Instance v. 1 4c describes the sense ‘to enjoy, have a taste for, or take pleasure in (an action, activity, condition, etc.)’ as ‘with gerund or verbal noun as object’. ‘I don’t like getting recognised in the street’ is an example of its use with a gerund.
[Unrevised entries use expressions with ‘gerundial’ and ‘gerundially’ that mean ‘(used) as a gerund’, and in both revised and unrevised entries ‘gerundial’ and ‘gerundival’ are used to designate sentences, conditions, etc., which begin with gerunds.]
The head of a grammatical phrase is the principal and typically obligatory part of that phrase. For example, the noun dress is the head of the noun phrase her long white dress; the adjective good is the head of the adjective phrase quite surprisingly good.
- An effective adj. 1b describes uses of a ‘Following a determiner or adjective and preceding the noun head.’ For example, numer telefonu daf in ‘Is he really that big a sap?’, a directly precedes the noun sap, which is the head of the noun phrase that big a sap.
imperative (imper.)
In English, the feet function of a verb is used as the imperative, and imperative clauses typically lack a grammatical subject. For example, ‘Come here!’ is an imperative clause, and the verb come is in the imperative.
- The phrase discover genuinefrom the Actual adj. dos P6 is described as ‘Now frequently in imper., used to suggest that an idea or statement is foolish, overly idealistic, or quite wrong.’ An example of imperative use is ‘“Shit, Jo. I didn’t know he meant anything to you.” “Come on. He doesn’t.”’
- YE pron. 2 is defined as ‘Used after an imperative, with singular or plural reference.’ Examples include ‘Hear ye! Hear ye!’ and ‘Go ye unto the villages’, in which ye follows verbs in the imperative (hear and go).