Learn English – Is the correct pronunciation of “Have you seen Mary’s book” “Mary book”

grammarinflectional-morphologymorphemespronunciationstyle-manuals

So there is this question about the pronunciation of the noun possessive inflection.

A certain text states that a zero allomorph is used by certain American English speakers for the noun possessive morpheme.

It says that that the [z] sound of the possessive suffix and the first consonant of the book create a situation in which possessive morpheme "may not be pronounced".

This is the quote from a text:

Some speakers of American English have a zero allomorph of the possessive morpheme. They may indicate possession either by using the {-s2} versions we have noted or simply by juxtaposing the two nouns involved, as in Have you seen Mary book? As in the case of the zero allomorph of the present- and past-tense morphemes (in which John watches TV and John watched TV may be pronounced the same as John watch TV), the zero allomorph of the possessive tends to occur where two or more consonants come together. In Mary’s book, the [z] sound of the possessive suffix and initial consonant of book create the environment in which the possessive morpheme may not be pronounced. Such a pronunciation pattern is one of the many minor ways in which one dialect of English may differ from another without affecting meaning. Teachers of children who routinely use the zero allomorph of the possessive (Mary book) in speech may have to help them to become conscious of the correct _spelling- of the possessive, for they are likely, at least initially, to write possessive nouns as they pronounce them.
Analyzing English Grammar by Thomas P. Klammer, Muriel R. Schulz, Angela Della Volpe

Thanks.

Best Answer

One American dialect where you can say Mary book rather than Mary's book, is African American Vernacular English, spoken mainly in the African American community. See this article.

An excerpt:

Possession in AAVE is also different. It can be shown by proximity where the owner’s name comes before the object owned. For instance, “She over Mary house” (Dandy, 1991, p.49). In this sentence you know that the house belongs to Mary because her name precedes the object owned. However, in SE, the only way to show possession is to add 's after the owner’s name.

In all other dialects of American English I am aware of, including standard American English, you need to pronounce the /z/ in Mary's book (although not always in other possessive phrases, like Claude's stuff or James's coat).