Functional Genitive Phrases in English

Functional genitive phrases are combinations of a preposition (or a sequence of prepositions) with a noun or pronoun that contain a marker of genitive relations. Such constructions express a wide range of semantic relations and perform various discourse functions. Depending on the nature of the genitive relation they encode, functional genitive phrases may be classified into several groups, including role-related, causal, positional or status-related, quantitative, partitive, and comparative constructions.

The phrase on behalf of is a role-related functional genitive phrase that indicates substitution of one person or group for another, representation of somebody's interests, or the performance of actions for the benefit of another person or organisation. This construction is structurally variable since it has both an analytical form with the genitive marker of (on behalf of somebody) and a synthetic variant employing the English possessive marker (on somebody's behalf).

The phrase is particularly common in legal and business discourse, for example:

Legal complaint filed on behalf of Rick Fox (The Washington Post, 2 October 2019).

It may also occur in reports describing accidents, disasters or court proceedings, as in:

Federal lawsuit against Boeing on behalf of Indonesia plane crash victims (The Washington Post, 14 March 2019).

Another role-related functional genitive phrase is in memory of, which signals that an event or action is motivated by the desire to commemorate a person or preserve the memory of a significant event. For example:

A Georgia teen recorded a song in memory of a Marine he never knew (The Washington Post, 10 September 2019).

The construction is frequently employed to highlight the importance or lasting contribution of an individual, as illustrated by the headline:

In memory of a writer who was the very definition of a professional (The Washington Post, 21 January 2006).

Status- or position-related functional genitive phrases, such as on the verge of and on the brink of, express the idea of approaching a significant event or state, often resulting from political, economic or social developments.

The phrase on the verge of may be followed either by a gerund or by a noun. When followed by a gerund, it emphasises the dynamic nature of the situation and the high probability of its occurrence in the immediate future, for example:

Biden might be on the verge of making a blunder with China.

When followed by a noun, the construction usually denotes an anticipated event or state in a more general sense:

We might be on the verge of an indoor air quality revolution (The Washington Post, 15 May 2023).

Another quantitative functional genitive phrase is a total of, which specifies the exact quantity or overall number of people, objects or events. Unlike simple numerals, this construction introduces the figure as the result of counting or aggregation and therefore frequently appears in reports presenting statistical information, election results, financial data and official statements. For example:

Nearly a Million Investors Lost a Total of $3.8 Billion on Trump Crypto Coin (The New York Times, 04 July 2026).

A functional genitive phrase a total of contributes to precision, objectivity and factual presentation, which are among the defining stylistic features of journalistic reporting.

The analysis demonstrates that functional genitive phrases are an essential component of newspaper discourse. Besides expressing genitive relations, they organise information, establish logical and semantic connections between discourse participants and events, and contribute to the accuracy, coherence and communicative effectiveness of journalistic texts.