grammaticality - "Every X of mine" VS "My every X"
I'm pretty sure that "Every X of mine" is correct, but reading and speaking out "My every X" makes me feel uncertain about it... is it also correct?
If it's not used in formal language or common speaking, can it be allowed anyway as poetic license in writing a song lyric?
Answer
Personally, I feel that my every X is a more stylised/poetic construction. Perhaps because of that, it feels slightly "dated" to me as a spoken usage.
Apart from that I think it's semantically equivalent to every X of mine. But all my X's seems a more "natural" phrasing to me, and arguably there's a slight shift in emphasis...
Every X of mine places more emphasis on all my X's, considered collectively.
My every X emphasises each one of my X's, considered individually.
Thus, for example, in...
1: John defeated every argument of mine.
2: John defeated my every argument.
...it could be argued that #1 is more appropriate where John has defeated all my arguments using a single line of attack/reasoning, whereas #2 is better where John forensically addressed and defeated each of my arguments using a different counter-argument.
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