Progressive English is alleged to own natural (as opposed to grammatical) sex, for the reason that
genitive
In some inflected languages, the genitive situation is used to indicate possession, close relationship, and similar concepts. Old English, as an inflected language, possessed a genitive case, which is reflected in modern standard English in pronouns and determiners (e.g. his, our) and in the ‘s in, for example, John’s book, which is the modern equivalent of the old genitive case ending -es. These survivals of the genitive case in modern English are generally classified as possessive.
- Master letter. 15b, in the form master’s (meaning a master’s degree) is analysed as ‘in the genitive, used ‘
- FIREMAN n.