a hard day’s labor

[TheParser]

One of the distinguishing marks of the descriptive genitive is the fact that any modifiers and/or determiners preceding it generally belong to the head noun, rather than to the genitive noun. This means that in the following structure his and old modify cottage:
his old shepherd's cottage.
(Compare: his old friend's cottage)*

On top of this no item can be put in between shepherd's and cottage.

Having said this I would rather liken 'a hard day's labor' or 'a tolerable night's sleep' to 'his old shepherd's cottage' than to 'the old man's sight'.

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


Great!

Yes, I remember reading Professor Quirk's brilliant discussion.

It will be exciting to see what the teachers have to say about it.

"A hard day's labor" may, indeed, be different from "the old man's sight."

Your post shows once again that many advanced learners understand grammar

much better than many ordinary native speakers, many of whom (such as I) have

never studied university-level "grammar." (Is that "linguistics"?)

[TheParser]

a summer's day > a day in the summer, a summer day.*


Having said this I would rather liken 'a hard day's labor' or 'a tolerable night's sleep' to 'his old shepherd's cottage' than to 'the old man's sight'.

]

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


GREAT NEWS!!! (I think)

Maybe you have already read it, but if you have not, I have found a scholarly

discussion that will confirm your comments.

Please go to Google and type in these words:

Genitive determiners First day's Understanding English Grammar Thomas Edward Payne

*****

Scroll down to the 5th result. (Look for the words "it was a glorious summer's day.")

If you have not read this article yet, it will be an answer to your dreams!

Thanks a million for forcing me to expand my knowledge of English.

(Forgive me for not linking, but I am too stupid to know how.)