Date: Fri, 13 May 1994 09:50:15 -0500 From: debaron[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UIUC.EDU Subject: Re: genitive in names of businesses >In central Illinois, when business have singular name there is a >tendency to render the name in the genitive. Hence: >Eagle Supermarket -------> Eagle's >John Deere & Co. -------> Deere's Maybe in your part of central Illinois, but not in mine. Sure Kroger > Kroger's, but Jewel, Eagle, and IGA are uninflected. (Perhaps this is an uninflected genitive). Schnucks and other business names ending in s are of course ambiguous, though I don't think you hear Schnuckses or Prairie Gardenses. Carson Pirie Scott is Carson's. Yen Ching is Yen Ching. Dennis (that's uninflected, right?) ------ Dennis Baron debaron[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]uiuc.edu Department of English 217-333-2392 University of Illinois fax: 217-333-4321 608 South Wright Street Urbana, Illinois 61801