Words Used to Show Possession

[RonBee]

The original question is here: http://www.usingenglish.com/forum/as...tml#post239574



The answer is that its is not a pronoun, and it cannot be used in place of a noun.

See:
Definition of its - Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
Definition of my - Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
Definition of her - Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

Yes, you can say "the dog's dish" or "the dish belonging to the dog," but you can't say "the dish belonging to its".

~R

[belly_ttt]

Ah, only pronouns can stand, I understood, thanks

[rewboss]

Well, M-W seems to be the only dictionary that doesn't classify "its" as a pronoun.

Surely, "its" replaces not "the dog", but "the dog's", which is clearly a noun:

The dog's dish. -> Its dish.

You're right that we don't say "The dish belonging to its", but that's because we don't say "The dish belonging to the dog's". "It's" can be classified as a possessive pronoun, and so replaces possessive nouns.

What we cannot say is, for example, "It is my"; when possessive pronouns stand alone like that, we use a different form: "It is mine". You could probably debate for hours on end as to whether this represents a variant form of the same part of speech, or a different part of speech altogether, and you'd find convincing arguments on both sides. That's because language doesn't actually conform to tidy rules: we attempt to formulate rules to make it easier for us to make sense of what is actually chaos.

[belly_ttt]

So that means not all kind of pronouns can stand in that position?

[RonBee]

Well, M-W seems to be the only dictionary that doesn't classify "its" as a pronoun.

No, they are not alone. AHD, for one, agrees with them.

its
its definition - Dictionary - MSN Encarta
AskOxford: its
va=its - Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
its - Wiktionary
Wordsmyth
its. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.
http://www.infoplease.com/dictionary/its
ITS - Definitions from Dictionary.com (interesting usage note here)
Cambridge Dictionaries Online - Cambridge University Press

~R

[RonBee]

Surely, "its" replaces not "the dog", but "the dog's", which is clearly a noun:

The dog's dish. -> Its dish.

Not exactly. The phrase "the dog's" is a determiner. "The dog's dish" is a noun.

~R