Klarinet Archive - Posting 000013.txt from 2000/12

From: Karel Vahala <vahalakv@-----.au>
Subj: Re: [kl] War of the Tony`s
Date: Fri, 1 Dec 2000 07:12:18 -0500

Tim and Gavin, thank you for your support. Incidentally, I am the son of a
post-war migrant from central Europe, and was taught the correct use of the
apostrophe in school. The present crop of English Language teachers is responsible
for not correcting grammatical mistakes made by their pupils. Apparently it is
thought to be inappropriate to correct grammar in essays (creative language), and
the rest of the time it seems to be too much trouble, that is if they are aware of
the correct use of the language themselves.

Karel.
ShawThings@-----.com wrote:

> Neil,
> you'd better stay in the closet - You're wrong!
> (Except the bit about English being inconsistent).
> An apostrophe, correctly used, is NEVER an indicator of plurality except in
> cases where it appears after the "s" (which IS an indicator of plurality)
> e.g. clarinettist (one player) clarinettists (>1) clarinettist's (one player)
> clarinettists' (>1).
> It's (it is) difficult enough for English (1st language speakers [speaker's])
> to cope with this but it's (it is) criminal for them [e.g. Neil] to mislead
> the rest of the population (a majority) by failing to get it right themselves.
>
> As Karel correctly notes, the feral apostrophe is sadly endemic in Australia
> where I'm (I am) a resident.
> If you drive through almost any Australian city or town it's (it is) almost
> inevitable that you'll (you will) encounter at least one establishment which
> advertise's pizza's and meal's at bargain price's.
> I, like Karel find this incredibly irritating, but it seems (seem's) there's
> (there is) not much I or anyone else can do about it.
> Personally I believe that it's (it is) the Australian Federal and State
> Governments (Government's) putting Education last (or close to last) on the
> list of funding priorities (priority's).
> In the last position in which I was employed full-time as a tutor (in
> microbiology, not English) in a local university I noticed over a period of
> about 10 years that the worst offenders were usually (often very) intelligent
> Australian-born children of uneducated migrants from European countries.
> Most of the parents had arrived immediately postwar when labour was short in
> Australia. Their failure to grasp the "subtleties" of English is the fault
> of the education system, not the parents, most of whom could barely speak
> English.
> Sorry if I've tried to compensate for lack of eloquence by length.
> & to Neil, (who should be thoroughly closeted)
> you should really try to avoid posting misinformation - there are a tiny
> minority of listers who seem to be willing to believe anything.
> I also feel obliged to add that "US English" is an oxymoron.
> Best regards,
> Tim Shaw
>
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