'museum collections' vs 'museum's collections'

[milan2003_07]

The phrase has been taken from the Guidebook 'the Hermitage' (author: Sofia Kudriavtseva) issued in St. Petersburg in 2017:

'Illustrations show highlights of the museum collections'.

Is it possible to say '... museum's collections' with the apostrophe?

If both variants are possible, what is the difference?

 

[jutfrank]

Is it possible? If you mean to ask whether it would be grammatical and make sense, then yes. If you're asking whether it would be appropriate in the context, then also yes.

The difference lies in the grammar and the meaning. The version of the word 'museum' with the additional apostrophe 's' is in the genitive case, expressing a kind of belonging of the collections to the museums. In the version without the apostrophe, the word 'museum' is attributive, not in the genitive case. You can think of the word 'museum' as attributing the kind of collection.

 

[milan2003_07]

Is it possible? If you mean to ask whether it would be grammatical and make sense, then yes. If you're asking whether it would be appropriate in the context, then also yes.

The difference lies in the grammar and the meaning. The version of the word 'museum' with the additional apostrophe 's' is in the genitive case, expressing a kind of belonging of the collections to the museums. In the version without the apostrophe, the word 'museum' is attributive, not in the genitive case. You can think of the word 'museum' as attributing the kind of collection.

I think I understand the explanation and it's very close to what I thought about the usage of the apostrophe.

Still I wonder about the difference in meaning. Imagine we are speaking about some collections located in the Hermitage museum. I can say two phrases:

1. 'I would like to show you some museum collections that I know very well'.

2. 'I would like to show you some museum's collections that I know very well'.

In both cases I mean the same collections that can be found in the Hermitage museum.

What is the difference?

 

[jutfrank]

For a start, your sentence 2 is incorrect. You could say this instead:

2. I would like to show you some of the museum's collections that I know very well.

The difference is the same as what I outlined above, namely 'belonging' versus 'kind'. The reason it's wrong to say some museum's collections is that you appear to be talking here about kind, not belonging. Sentence 1 does not say anything about which specific collections you're referring to, whereas my corrected sentence 2 does.

museum collections = collections of artifacts that are curated specifically for exhibition in a museum