Date: Sat, 8 Nov 1997 10:03:26 -0500

From: Ron Butters RonButters[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM

Subject: (basket)ball terms



Larry writes:

I don't think it's ["Duke ball" versus

"Duke's ball"] s-deletion but something

more morphosyntactic



I agree: the source seems to me to be more logically the noun adjunct

construction than the possessive--a reduction of, say, "It's the Duke ball on

the forty-yard line" (I swear I've actually heard that; though I don't often

listen/watch football and never basketball, one can't entirely escape the

play-by-play for either one, especially the latter here at Duke).