limiting adjectives vs possessive adjectives

[Craig Ede]

Shmuel,

In an earlier post on this topic I pointed out that in English we have adjectives of varying types, two of which are:

possessive adjectives
limiting adjectives

User manual is a example of the latter and limits the intended audience.
Another example of this is "butterfly migration" which limits the scope of those things migrating.

Non-native speakers often miss this distinction and say things like "butterflies migration".

My wife is a native Spanish speaker and she claims Spanish does not allow such limiting adjectives instead saying "the migration of the butterfly". (Note the singular butterfly, mimicking the singular user in English.)

Putting "butterfly migration" into google translate results in "migración de la mariposa" in Spanish. (Not that that proves anything.)

Craig


From:
 Shmuel [mailto:shmuelw1 at gmail.com] 

Sent: Sunday, March 15, 2015 7:19 AM

To: Craig, Alison; hessiansx4; Framers

Subject: Re: User's manual vs. User manual


 

We use User’s Manual. User’s Manual is the manual for the User. How do explain the name User Manual? If it means the same thing, isn't it missing the "apostrophe s"?




--

Shmuel Wolfson

Technical Writer

052-763-7133




 		 	   		  
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