Possession and personification

Solution 1:

personification - A trope or figure of speech (generally considered a type of metaphor) in which an inanimate object or abstraction is given human qualities or abilities.

English possessive - Nouns ... form a possessive with the suffix -'s ... sometimes called the Saxon genitive, reflecting the suffix's derivation from a genitive case ending in Old English.

genitive (also called the possessive or second case) - the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun. It often marks a noun as being the possessor of another noun; however, it can also indicate various other relationships than possession.

It would be ridiculous to say that when we refer to the river's edge, for example, we're assigning human qualities to the river just because it can have an edge. And with, say, a day's work, it's hardly even possible to think of the day as "having" work. The possessive apostrophe doesn't necessarily imply "ownership" - often it just denotes some kind of association.

OP's "related" question presupposes the false idea that possessive apostrophe = personification.

Solution 2:

The apostrophe functions in many diverse ways including pure possessive derivation. As such, the apostrophe is not longer one of the suspects in the case.

Now for the concept of possession itself, there is a difference between 'ownership' and 'attribute'. At that point, things get rather fuzzy and opinion-based as to whether an inanimate object 'owns' or is 'attributed with' something in a given case.

The English language follows a slightly different set of criteria that's simpler and manageable.

The Blue Book can suggest a 'personification,' owing to its 'attribute' (adjective, blue), but only in a literary/ idiomatic sense.

It is true that in most common contexts, the apostrophe sometimes seems 'unnatural' when used with an inanimate object. However, such use by itself does not bring about a personification of the object.

Solution 3:

The Collins entry for the senses of 'belong' (/with; /to etc) covers a lot of senses, one the personal ownership sense; an extended one the sense of 'ownership by a society' (which probably does involve a type of personification); but others connoting no personification:

(3) (foll by: to, under, with, etc) to be classified (with): this plant belongs to the daisy family.

(4) (foll by to) to be a part or adjunct (of): this top belongs to the smaller box.

The derivation of the word seems to be traceable back to 'to depend on / reach', which would seem not to connote a personal tie-in per se.

'Possess' and 'belong to' are antonymous in most senses, though 'include' is preferred for sense (3) and simply 'have' for sense (4) above.

The apostrophe was once used to indicate omission even in the possessive usage:

John's book <==> John, his book

the book's cover <==> the book; its cover

Interestingly, there is a move to drop the apostrophe not from 'non-personal' usages but from non-possessive usages (some people recommend it be dropped altogether!):

We bought the children's clothing from the childrens clothing department here.

The dogs' home is, by coincidence, just round the corner from the Accrington Dogs Home.