Saxon genitive

[irmamar]

I've found this sentence in a book. Is it normal two saxon genitives together?, or is it a mistake?

To turn the world's nations' attention to the problem...

Thanks.

[poli]

Originally Posted by irmamar

I've found this sentence in a book. Is it normal two saxon genitives together?, or is it a mistake?Yes and no.

To turn the world's nations' attention to the problem...

Thanks.

Sometimes in speech you can leave out words, because language
is flexible. To express incredulousness you may say. Is it normal?
Two saxon genitives together?
In writing, and for the sake of clarity you may want to write the sentence in the following manner: Is it normal to have two Saxon genitives together?

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by irmamar

I've found this sentence in a book. Is it normal two saxon genitives together?, or is it a mistake?

To turn the world's nations' attention to the problem...

Thanks.

I suppose it is not exactly a mistake, but it sounds terrible to me. Far better would be

To turn the attention of the world's nations to the problem....

or

To turn the attention of the nations of the world to the problem....

You can have strings of Saxon genitives, such as

My friend's wife's brother's next-door-neighbour's dog's tail, an alternative to the tail of the dog of the next-door-neighbour of the brother of the wife of my friend, although I would not bother trying to understand either construction.

[brute]

Originally Posted by irmamar

I've found this sentence in a book. Is it normal two saxon genitives together?, or is it a mistake?

To turn the world's nations' attention to the problem...

Thanks.

I don't think its wrong, its just an awkward construction. However,the positions of both apostrophes are correct. The average native English speaker would avoid writing such sentences for fear of getting them wrong!