3.3.2 Persistence

The phenomenon of “persistence” implies that language users tend to reuse linguistic structures that they have used or heard before (Hinrichs and Szmrecsanyi 2007: 455). In the case of the genitive this entails that if a genitive construction (either s-genitive or of-genitive) has appeared in the preceding context, it tends to be reused. Szmrecsanyi (2006) points out that persistence has a strong effect on the genitive choice of spoken English; Hinrichs and Szmrecsanyi (2007: 455-456) find that persistence influences the choice of genitive in written English as well. Through corpus analysis it is calculated that 50.4% of all s-genitives in the corpora (Brown, LOB, Frown and F-LOB) are preceded by an s-genitive, while the corresponding figure of the of-genitive in the corpora is only 37.5%.

Here the question arises of whether the proportion of s-genitives which are preceded by an of-genitive in the corpora is smaller than the proportion of of-genitives which are preceded by an of-genitive. If yes, can it be concluded that persistence probably has equal effects on choosing s-genitives or of-genitives? If the answer is no, could it be due to how widespread the s-genitive is in present days? This question remains unsolved.

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