Klarinet Archive - Posting 000201.txt from 2000/12

From: George Kidder <gkidder@-----.org>
Subj: Re: [kl] Apostrophe
Date: Mon, 4 Dec 2000 13:52:04 -0500

Or one I saw as a hand lettered sign in Philadelphia in the late 50's:

Happy Hollyday's

George

At 10:55 12/02/2000 +0100, you wrote:
>Over here, the "Tony's" sort of apostrophe gets called "the greengrocers'
>apostrophe" -- because of the prevalence of signs in their shops reading
>"spring green's", "brussel's sprout's", "runner bean's", and, even,
"tomatoe's"
>(no kidding..).
>Roger S.
>
>
>
>
>In message <bf.946438b.275a2143@-----.org writes:
>> Neil wrote,
>> <<You're clinging to grade-school dogma,........simply tacking an 's' onto
>> the end of a proper noun is also incorrect relative to the plural form ,
>> i.e.; Tonys.
>> The key issue here is context, not a set of dogmatic rules that were set
in
>> concrete by Ms. Wizbicky back in the second grade.
>> In the case of "War of the Tony's," the context
>> makes it plain that the writer intended to pluralize a proper noun, and
she
>> "properly" did so. Get over it.>>
>>
>> Are you just winding us up, Neil?
>>
>> In case not, I spoke to Ms. Wizbicky [now retired] and she quoted the
>> following...
>>
>> Regarding plurals of proper nouns ending in 'y':-
>> Example:-
>> <<The three Marys at the Crucifixion.>>
>>
>> Regarding the use of the apostrophe:-
>> It "may occasionally be used before a plural 's' as a device for avoiding
>> confusion, but this should not be extended beyond what is necessary for
that
>> purpose... "
>>
>> Fowler's Modern English Usage 2nd Edition Pub. OUP p. 457 and p.467
>>
>> Now, back to Guy Legere's reeds.
>>
>> Arthur Acheson
>>
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>
>--
>Real men DO eat quiche - with raw HTML
>
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