1.6.4 Pronouns and of genitive

Rule: Personal pronouns do not normally occur in the of genitive.

Examples of errors:

(1) Sports is also a hobby of me.
(2) Take for instance this statement of you concerning phonemes.
(3) I wrote"to a friend of me about an English project.
(4) These are the main characteristics of him.

It was mentioned in 1.6.3 that animate nouns are less likely to occur in of genitive than in -s genitive constructions (e.g. the collar of John vs. John's collar). This restriction can be made more precise if we consider errors like those in the sentences above, which show that the pronouns me, you and him are also objectionable in the of genitive. In fact, there seems to be a scale of acceptability or likelihood of occurrence here, starting with the first and second person pronouns as the least likely or acceptable (cf. (l)-(3)). (There are exceptions, e.g. in idioms like not for the life of me.) Next, only slightly more acceptable are the third person pronouns him, her, them (cf. (4)). It is excluded here (hence the reference only to personal pronouns in Rule 1.6.4), because it does allow the -s genitive more readily. Next on the scale are single names (John, Smith), then complete names or names with titles (John Smith, Mr. John Smith), and finally common nouns, which occur relatively freely in both constructions (the hat of the man or the man's hat).

X am/are/is fat, stupid and rich. These are the main characteristics of

me/you/us (least likely to occur)
him/her/them
John
the man (most likely to occur)

This scale of preference is at least partly explicable by the tendency in English to reserve final (stressed) position in a clause for new information. Since pronouns ordinarily indicated old information, i.e. that the referent is known to both speaker and hearer, it would be unusual to give a pronoun end focus when the alternative prenominal position is available. Personal names and common nouns referring to people qualify for end focus and the of genitive according to the degree to which they require or justify relative semantic prominence in the sentence. For example, the hat of the man (with contrastive stress on man) might occur if a contrast with the hat of the woman is intended, but even in this case a pronoun would be avoided (cf. *the hat of him).

The of genitive is not to be confused with prepositional phrases beginning with of that are not genitive, in which all these pronouns and nouns occur without restriction, e.g.:

Here is a picture of

me/you/us/him/her/it/them
John
the man
...etc.

A picture of me can mean only 'a picture taken of me', not 'a picture belonging to me'.

When the head of the noun phrase (the noun which the of phrase modifies) is indefinite, as in (l)-(3), the so-called double genitive may be used. This has the effect of making indefinite reference (with the head noun) to one of a definite class of things. For example, a hobby of mine refers indefinitely to a (one of) the entire class of my hobbies--the class itself being definitely specified with the possessive pronoun. The double genitive, then, is equivalent to one of + possessive adjective or noun with -s genitive + noun:

a hobby of mine/his/John's/the man's, etc.

is equivalent to

one of my/his/John's/the man's, etc. hobbies

In some cases, as in (3), the double genitive does not have the meaning 'an indefinite one of a definite number', but rather has definite reference (the head noun is usually preceded by this/that/these/those) and reflects a tone of familiarity with the person addressed. This statement of yours is not equivalent to one of your statements but simply to your statement or this statement that you made. Similarly, that wife of yours and this critical tendency of yours are not equivalent to one of your wives and one of your critical tendencies but rather to your wife and your critical tendency, with the added nuance of familiarity or perhaps emphasis.