連日 a friend of mine のタイプの2重属格 (double_genitive) の表現に注目している．
・ 「#5647. a friend of mine --- 2重属格」 ([2024-10-12-1])
・ 「#5653. 2重属格表現 a friend of mine の2つの意味的特徴」 ([2024-10-18-1])
・ 「#5654. a friend of mine vs. one of my friends」 ([2024-10-19-1])
従来，of mine が果たしている機能について，部分用法 (partitive) と見る向きと同格用法 (appositive) と見る向きがあった．前者であれば "a friend of my friends" と，後者であれば "a friend, who is mine" とパラフレーズできる．後者の解釈をいぶかしく思う向きもあるかもしれないが，昨日の記事 ([2024-10-19-1]) で紹介した "this hand of mine" のような表現を説明するには都合がよい．
学史上，2つの解釈をめぐって議論がなされてきたが，例えば Jespersen （§194 [pp. 173--74]) は，部分用法を前提としつつも，同格用法にも言及している．全体として歯切れの悪い説明だ．以下に引用しよう．
194. Speaking of the genitive, we ought also to mention the curious use in phrases like 'a friend of my brother's'. This began in the fourteenth century with such instances as 'an officere of the prefectes' (Chaucer G 368), where officers might be supplied (= one of the prefect's officers) and 'if that any neighebor of mine (= any of my neighbours) Wol nat in chirche to my wyf enclyne' (ib. B 3091). In the course of a few centuries, the construction became more and more frequent, so that it has now long been one of the fixtures of the English language. A partitive sense is still conceivable in such phrases as 'an olde religious unckle of mine' (Sh.. As III, 3, 362) = one of my uncles, though it will be seen that it is impossible to analyse it as being equal to 'one of my old religious uncles'. But it is not at all certain that of here from the first was partitive; it is rather to be classed with the appositional use in the three of us = 'the three who are we'; the City of Rome = 'the City which is Rome'. The construction is used chiefly to avoid the juxtaposition of two pronouns, 'this hat of mine, that ring of yours' being preferred to 'this my hat, that your ring', or of a pronoun and a genitive, as in 'any ring of Jane's', where 'any Jane's ring' or 'Jane's any ring' would be impossible; compare also 'I make it a rule of mine', 'this is no fault of Frank's', etc. In all such cases the construction was found so convenient that it is no wonder that it should soon be used extensively where no partitive sense is logically possible, as in 'nor shall [we] ever see That face of hers againe' (Shakespeare, Lear I, 1, 267), 'that flattering tongue of yours' (As IV, 1, 195), 'If I had such a tyre, this face of mine Were full as lovely as is this of hers' (Gent. IV, 4, 190), 'this uneasy heart of ours' (Wordsworth), 'that poor old mother of his', etc. When we now say 'he has a house of his own', no one could think of this as meaning 'he has one of his own houses'.
2重属格は，部分用法を起源としながらも，歴史の途中から同格用法を発達させてきたようにみえる．後者の発達の契機は何だったのか，今後くわしく調べていきたい．
・ Jespersen, Otto. Growth and Structure of the English Language. 10th ed. Chicago: U of Chicago, 1982 [1905].
標題のように，いくつかの形容詞は「of + 人」という前置詞句を伴う．
・ It's very kind of you to come. （わざわざ来てもらってすみません．）
・ It was foolish of you to spend so much. （そんなにお金を使って馬鹿ねえ．）
・ It was wrong of him to tell lies. （嘘をついて，彼もよくなかったね．）
・ It is wise of you to stay away from him. （君が彼とつき合わないのは賢明だ．）
・ It was silly of me to forget my passport. （パスポートを忘れるとはうかつだった．）
典型的に It is ADJ of PERSON to do . . . . という構文をなすわけだが，PERSON is ADJ to do . . . . という構文もとることができる点で興味深い．たとえば標題は You're very kind to come. とも言い換えることができる．この点で，より一般的な「for + 人」を伴う It is important for him to get the job. （彼が職を得ることは重要なことだ．）の構文とは異なっている．後者は *He is important to get the job. とはパラフレーズできない．
標題の構文を許容する形容詞 --- すなわち important タイプではなく kind タイプの形容詞 --- を挙げてみると，careful, careless, crazy, greedy, kind, mad, nice, silly, unwise, wise, wrong 等がある (Quirk et al. §§16.76, 16.82）．いずれも意味的には人の行動を評価する形容詞である．別の角度からみると，標題の文では kind （親切な）なのは「来てくれたこと」でもあり，同時に「あなた」でもあるという関係が成り立つ．
一方，上述の important （重要な）を用いた例文では，重要なのは「職を得ること」であり，「彼」が重要人物であるわけではないから，やはり両タイプの意味論的性質が異なることが分かるだろう．つまり，important タイプの for を用いた構文とは異なり，kind タイプの of を用いた構文では，kind of you の部分が you are kind という意味関係を包含しているのである．
とすると，この前置詞 of の用法は何と呼ぶべきか．一種の同格 (apposition) の用法とみることもできるが，どこか納まりが悪い（cf. 「#2461. an angel of a girl (1)」 ([2016-01-22-1])，「#2462. an angel of a girl (2)」 ([2016-01-23-1])）．「人物・行動評価の of」などと呼んでもよいかもしれない．いずれにせよ，歴史的に探ってみる必要がある．
・ Quirk, Randolph, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech, and Jan Svartvik. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman, 1985.
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