Klarinet Archive - Posting 000008.txt from 2000/12

From: A4ACHESON@-----.com
Subj: Re: Re: [kl] War of the Tony`s
Date: Fri, 1 Dec 2000 04:34:51 -0500

In a message dated 1/12/00 6:10:27 am, you wrote:

<<I'm a bit of a closet English-o-phile, and it is actually proper usage

> in this case to include the apostrophe to denote plurality. It looks

> wrong, yes, but nobody ever accused the English language of being con-

> sistent.

>

> -- Neil

I think this is a misunderstanding of the apostrophe's function. It denotes
possession or omission, or perhaps both. <<John's reed>>, historically
written as <<John his reed>>, the apostrophe substituting for the 'hi' of
'his'. I think English is consistent in this 'except' in the apparent case if
<<its>>, meaning belonging to <<it>>, whereas <<it's>> is the contraction of
<<it is>>.
Confussion may arise with <<There are two s's in confussion.>>. The
apostrophe might seem to indicate a plural, but it indicates the omission of
the <<e>> sound in the <<s's>>.

Now, back to the Legere reed.

AA

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