Why are partners and relatives referred to as possessions? MY wife, husband, brother, sister etc.?

Question

If nobody actually owns or belongs to anyone?

Answer 1

It isn't really possessive of the person. When you say my husband, you are referring to the relationship. If you were to say my Fred, they it would sound like you own the person.
English is a crazy language.
Why do we cut a tree up after we have already cut it down?
If vegetarians eat vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
Why does night fall but never break and day breaks but never falls?
Why do we pack suits in a garment bag and pack garments in a suitcase?
Why is the third hand on a clock called the second hand?
Why isn't the word phonetic spelled phonetically?
Why is the word abbreviation so long?
Why does the word monosyllabic have five syllables?
If olive oil is made from olives, what do they make baby oil from?
If pro and con are opposites, is congress the opposite of progress?
If a firefighter fights fires, then what does a freedom fighter fight?
If you have one foot and two feet, then shouldn't you have one boot and two beet?
Why is it that getting mixed up makes us feel down?
If a pig loses its voice, is it disgruntled?
And why is it that we park on a driveway and drive on a parkway?
An English professor wrote the words : "A woman without her man is nothing" on the chalkboard and asked his students to punctuate it correctly.
All of the males in the class wrote:
"A woman, without her man, is nothing."
All the females in the class wrote:
"A woman: without her, man is nothing."

Answer 2

Well there's really no need to be jealous - and bad blood will only put your son in the middle. That said, youre not the only person to feel jealous because of an ex. But the truth is that we ALL (hopefully) tend to learn from our last relationships and therefore make changes to accomodate our new ones. I cant say I havent thought more than once "Geez, why couldnt you have been like that with ME?" - but I always have to realize that we never really would have been that way with each other. If we had stayed together he wouldnt have learned anything and neither would I. Thats the thing about most relationships... you never really learn anything until after the fact; in retrospect. And anyway you were both younger then and have since done some growing up. Who is to say back then he wouldnt have been fighting with her until 4am too, ya know? So dont take it personally. Its ok to acknowledge that you feel the way you do and its totally normal, but in the long run it isnt healthy and just let it go.

Answer 3

How else would you know which wife and which brother is being talked about?

"Could you call the brother?"

How would you know if the person is asking you to call his brother, your brother or somebody else's brother?

I guess it just simplifies things a lot to refer to people as possessions. Everyone knows you don't actually OWN your family, but it makes it easier to refer to them.

Answer 4

It just possevie verbs and stuff innit lol u cant just say sister or husband, doesnt sound right, but no one belongs 2 any1

Answer 5

When we say "my sister" , we are not saying that the sister belongs to us, but rather, we are referring to the intimacy and the relationship of being her sister . To say "my" speaks volumes about what the person means to us.

Answer 6

One could possibly consider "my wife" to be a shortened version on "the wife of myself"

Answer 7

In Scotland they use to say My Johnny-or My Annie. I think it's cute. But this is modern age and heaven forbid .

Answer 8

I never knew that. If I did, I would have been really upset. But possessions? That's terrible!

Answer 9

To differentiate them from YOUR husband, sister, brother.

Answer 10

Would you prefer THE wife or THE husband ? That sounds a little impersonal, doesn't it ?