The Genitive Cluster

Fawcett (2010: 212, 212n):

The first of the two classes of cluster in English is the genitive cluster (genclr). This always fills either (1) the deictic determiner (dd) of a nominal group, (2) the head (h) or, less frequently, (3) a modifier (m), as in the underlined portion of a girl's bike, where the meaning is 'a bike that is suitable for a girl'), or (infrequently) (4) the type of deictic that occurs in a quality group (qld), as in my sister's most precious doll.¹⁶

¹⁶ It is not the case, of course, that all deictic determiners and heads are filled by genitive clusters; there are choices in the system network that lead to either the direct exponence of an element by an item (e.g., the) or to re-entry to the network, in order to generate a cluster (e.g., this university's). See Section 11.6.2 of Chapter 6 for 'variation in depth of exponence'.

Blogger Comments:

[1] To be clear, in SFL Theory, this genitive cluster is simply a word (girl's) serving as the Classifier of a nominal group:

[2] To be clear, in SFL Theory, this genitive cluster is an embedded nominal group (my sister's) serving as the Deictic of another nominal group:

Clearly, from the perspective of a functional grammar, the genitive cluster is a redundant class of form that only arises from Fawcett giving priority to form over function.

[3] To be clear, Fawcett does not provide the system network.