English Language & Usage Asked by painfulenglish on February 17, 2021
My gut feeling tells me that sentences such as
Own mistakes have to be dealt with first.
Own experience matters the most.
We present own results.
are not correct, and I would supplement “own” with, for example, “your” or “my”.
Is the above use of “own” just unusual, or is there a general rule saying that “own” always requires the possessive of a noun or a possessive pronoun?
The Oxford dictionary at least suggests that “own” cannot be used after an article:
Own cannot be used after an article:
I need my own room. (Not: I need an own room.)
It’s good to have your own room. (Not: It’s good to have the own room.)
Are there other words for which that is also the case?
(“own” without a pronoun is often found in English texts written by German native speakers, because in German it is perfectly fine to say “Eigene Fehler …”.)
According to the CaGEL, the adjective own is unique amongst adjective because it only occurs with a genitive subject-determiner.
A genitive subject-determiner is either:
There are a very few exception to this rule, but they all occur in fixed phrases such as an own goal.
In short we cannot use the adjective own without a preceding noun.
[CaGEL is The Cambridge grammar of the English language Huddleston and Pullum, 2002]
Correct answer by BCN on February 17, 2021
To find other examples you'd look for other reflexive-like, slightly redundant noun/pronoun modifiers/'emphasizers?' and I can't find/think of any, so to make this an answer (instead of a comment, where it probably belongs, but for which I don't have enough 'reputation') I'll say:
No, there are no other words for which this is also the case.
Answered by Papa Poule on February 17, 2021
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