Timeline for "My apartment building" - does the entire building belong to the speaker or just the apartment?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
15 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Apr 9, 2022 at 21:08 | answer | added | James K | timeline score: 2 | |
| Apr 9, 2022 at 20:59 | answer | added | David Siegel | timeline score: 1 | |
| Apr 9, 2022 at 20:27 | history | edited | ColleenV |
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| Oct 8, 2021 at 21:02 | comment | added | gotube♦ | If I owned an entire apartment building, I would know that pragmatically, "my apartment building" would be understood to mean "the building that contains my apartment". I would more likely say, "the apartment building that I own" or something unambiguous like that. | |
| Oct 8, 2021 at 16:50 | comment | added | Edwin Ashworth | Pragmatics demands that the most sensible / natural reading be taken here. Saying "New York ... that's my town" cannot be read as "I own the city". And without disambiguating context, using " ... my block of flats ... " when ownership is meant to be understood violates the Gricean maxim of manner. | |
| Oct 8, 2021 at 15:23 | comment | added | Kate Bunting | My doctor/dentist doesn't 'belong to me'. | |
| Oct 8, 2021 at 14:18 | history | migrated | from english.stackexchange.com (revisions) | ||
| Oct 8, 2021 at 12:01 | comment | added | jimm101 | My country 'tis of thee. My parents. My city. Talkin' 'bout my girl. My school. My college. | |
| Oct 8, 2021 at 10:56 | comment | added | Al-cameleer | Perfect analogy, @FumbleFingers. Makes sense - thank you, everyone. | |
| Oct 8, 2021 at 8:54 | comment | added | Peter | If I am a slave "that is my master" states that he owns me, not the reverse. | |
| Oct 8, 2021 at 8:43 | comment | added | Andrew Leach | The limited use of the possessive is easily disproved by the example of "That is my picture," which could mean that I own it, or that someone else does but it depicts me. I guess we're getting towards an answer. | |
| Oct 8, 2021 at 8:43 | comment | added | High Performance Mark | I'd advise against thinking that my girlfriend suggests any sort of ownership! My X is used to express a variety of relationships between me and x. My foot, my word, and probably a dozen more if I could only think quicker. | |
| Oct 8, 2021 at 8:39 | comment | added | Al-cameleer | You're right, @AndrewLeach. I just typed in "his block of flats" in Google, and in all cases the phrase is not used to mean that the speaker owns the block, but that his flat is in that block. It seems very odd to me, particularly because "my/his/her" for me means that one OWNS something or, at the very least, leases it. I'll remove it. Thank you. | |
| Oct 8, 2021 at 8:32 | comment | added | Andrew Leach | Your paragraph starting "In (British) English" is entirely false. "I entered my block of flats" does not mean that the speaker owns the block -- principally because so few people own entire blocks. | |
| Oct 8, 2021 at 8:18 | history | asked | Al-cameleer | CC BY-SA 4.0 |