Today's topic / Today's activity

English grammar questions, answered by Alan

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Rossana
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Today's topic / Today's activity

Post by Rossana »

Hi!

I've been researching for a concrete explanation about how we can classify the function of 'today' in "Today's topic" or 'today's activity'.

Someone corrected me with this sentence,
"Today's topic is about ' and 'You did a good job in today's activity.'

He told me that 'today' cannot own a topic or an activity, since apostrophe notes possession if not contraction.

How does 'today' function in the above sentences?

Thanks!
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Alan
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Re: Today's topic / Today's activity

Post by Alan »

Your friend is quite incorrect!

It is perfectly possible in English to add a possessive apostrophe to nouns denoting time, e.g. this week's news. In your example, the word 'today' functions nominally and the apostrophe may therefore be added.

As regards functional classification, a noun in the possessive case is termed a determiner.
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