Stylistic functions of the Genitive case, plural number and the articles

“The trees had eagerness in every turg, stretching their buds upward to the sun’s warmth; the blackbirds were in song” (J. Galsworthy)

The suffix‘s’ may be also added to the phrase or to the whole sentence: She’s the boy I used to go with’s mother. He’s the niece, I told you about’s husband. A comic effect is achieved due to many factors:

1. The suffix is added not to a stem but to a noun, followed by a subordinate clause.

2. Logical incompatibility of the following words placed together: she’s the boy; he’s the niece; about’s husband.

The use of Plural number in unusual collocations is also a source of expressiveness: One I’m – sorry – for –you is worth twenty I – told – you – so’s. The sentence has a jocular ring because a plural ending ’s’ is added to the whole sentence together with the numeral ‘twenty’.

Abstract nouns used in plural become countable, concrete and acquire additional expressive connotation making the description more vivid and impressive: “Oh! Wilfred has emotions, hates, pities, wants; at least sometimes; when he does his stuff is jolly good. Otherwise he just makes a song about nothing – like the rest (J.Galsworthy) …”; “The peculiar look came into Bossiney’s face which marked all his enthusiasms”. Sometimes the forms of singular and plural of abstract nouns have different shades of the given abstract notion and are used for emphasis: “He had nerve but no nerves.”

LGC of Material nouns as a rule have no plural but in descriptions of nature and landscapes they may be used in plural for the sake of expressiveness: The snows of Kilimanjaro, the sands of Africa, the waters of the Ocean. The same effect is achieved when PUs with nouns denoting weight and measure lose their concrete meaning and become synonyms to the pronouns much, many, a lot of, little, few: T ons of funs, loads of friends; a sea of troubles, a pound of pardons.