"Its" as a Possessive Pronoun

Since its can be both determiner possessive pronoun and nominal possessive pronoun, an example of its as determiner possessive pronoun would be:

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Because complexity is a noun, so its must be a determiner possessive pronoun in this sentence. I'm looking for an example where its is used as nominal possessive pronoun in a sentence as above.

Answer

It’s much more common to use its as a possessive determiner like my, her, or their, than it is to use it as a possessive pronoun like mine, hers, or theirs.

A possessive determiner goes in the determiner slot of a larger noun phrase; there still has to be a noun later on in that noun phrase.

In contrast, a possessive pronoun is an actual substantive all by itself and so needs no noun following.

Using its in this way is possible but not common. The ᴏᴇᴅ2 calls this an absolute possessive, used when no substantive follows. They provide just one citation, from Shakespeare’s Henry VIII. Here’s the full extended quote:

Then you lost
The view of earthly glory: men might say,
Till this time pomp was single, but now married
To one above itself. Each following day
Became the next day’s master, till the last
Made former wonders its.

As a possessive pronoun instead of a possessive determiner, its means “its ones”, and is marked “rare” in the ᴏᴇᴅ.

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Here are some other examples taken from Google Books:

• I was still shaking, so I couldn't tell if the vibrations the body made were its or mine.


• The Church had different interests from powerful freemen, whose lands were subject to confiscation in a way that its were not, and rarely made ...


• But still my eyes with maddening gaze
  Were fixed upon its fearful face,
  And its were fixed on me.


• It was the tongue that their mothers taught them to speak, its were the words used in courtship by young men and maidens, and its accents were the last heard from relatives and friends


• As far as lifespans go, its had been a relatively long one but that had now ended.


• Group work is neither mine nor yours nor ours nor its.


• I then briefly consider the state’s agenda in its own terms, or at least in terms (probably somewhere between its and ours) external to Sherpa society.


• Multiply the amount of each bill by the time between its and the first purchase...


• Look for vulnerabilities—its and ours.


• Perhaps the freedom of another cannot belong to me, cannot be given by the essence of my subjectivity, cannot belong to any essence, even that of subjectivity, its or mine.


• But it would doubtless be more accurate to affirm that its and ours are in keeping.


• A fall 2008 tour brought fans closer to 1950s Jughead long before Juliet whacks it to death (both its and hers).


• Thereupon, the rabbit replied that the mistake was neither its, nor of the other animals.


• ...with the result that we never know whether the forces that bear us are its or ours—...


• Yesterday, yet another happily newlywed couple'd taken a look at the place, open and shut cabinets, tested the blinds, its and hers and theirs; elbowed one another as they smirked at the beds...