Some Considerations on the ’s Morpheme in English: Acquisition and Theory*

This article starts from the discussion of some data concerning the ac-quisition of English as a second language, which suggest that genitival ’s and copular ’s are considered one and the same morpheme by the ex-perimental subjects. The ’s = is Hypothesis is then examined throughout some relevant linguistic literature. The examination of arguments in fa-vour and against it leads to the proposal that ’s is indeed one and the same morpheme whose content is (third) person, in turn a quantificational feature which expresses denotation. In the final part of the paper exten-sions to plural-s and third person singular-s of lexical verbs are sketched