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Author Topic: Apostrophes (not apostrophe's)  (Read 1640 times)

Bacchanalian

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Apostrophes (not apostrophe's)
« on: 25 Jan 2011, 12:47 »

Okay, I've reached my breaking point with this folks.  I don't know where this trend started, but it seems like over the course of the last 5 years, everyone on the internet collectively forgot how the fuck to properly use an apostrophe, and moreover, when not to. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostrophe

Quote
In English, it serves three purposes: the omission of one or more letters (as in the contraction of does not to doesn’t); the marking of possessive cases (as in the cat’s whiskers); the marking as plural of written items that are not words established in English orthography (as in P's and Q's, the late 1950's).

This means the only case in which a plural is an acceptable circumstance for using an apostrophe is when it is the plural of something not generally considered a word.  Things like "thoraxes" and "legions" and "corporations" do not fall into this category.  Words that you utter on a daily basis do not fall into this category.  In fact, examples of what do fall into this category are so rare that I'm having difficulty coming up with another one besides the one used in the example above.

Another quote:

Quote
Incorrect use of the apostrophe is widespread,[47][48] and the abuse of the punctuation mark generates heated debate. The British founder of the Apostrophe Protection Society earned a 2001 Ig Nobel prize for "efforts to protect, promote and defend the differences between plural and possessive".[49] A 2004 report by OCR, a British examination board, stated that "the inaccurate use of the apostrophe is so widespread as to be almost universal".[50] A 2008 survey found that nearly half of the UK adults polled were unable to use the apostrophe correctly.[48]

Seriously folks, that guy is on my list of heroes.  His efforts go a fraction of the way every day towards the ultimate goal of preventing me from spontaneous migraines every time I read text online.

/end rant

Sorry, but that's been building up for a while.  Not targeted at anyone in particular, but a shotgun post for everyone--I even catch myself doing it once in a while simply because my fingers get ahead of my brain and I have to take a step back, flog myself, don the hair shirt, and go back to what I was doing a bit more deliberately.
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KJLLV

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Re: Apostrophes (not apostrophe's)
« Reply #1 on: 25 Jan 2011, 14:20 »

Would be too much to presume something like this had anything to do with your kettle boiling over? Though I do certainly share sympathies with you regarding the rampant apostrophe abuse on the internet.
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Casiella

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Re: Apostrophes (not apostrophe's)
« Reply #2 on: 25 Jan 2011, 14:38 »

I used to have this printed out at my desk. I'd regularly call co-workers over to it and point to it.

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Odelya

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Re: Apostrophes (not apostrophe's)
« Reply #3 on: 25 Jan 2011, 17:53 »

This is indeed a serious problem—and also not uncommon in German.

Seriously folks, that guy is on my list of heroes. 
Maybe Lynne Truss is another person for your list of heroes? She covers an issue which isn't unrelated to your problem:

Quote
A panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and proceeds to fire it at the other patrons.
'Why?' asks the confused, surviving waiter amidst the carnage, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.
'Well, I'm a panda,' he says, at the door. 'Look it up.'
The waiter turns to the relevant entry in the manual and, sure enough, finds an explanation. 'Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.'

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eats,_Shoots_%26_Leaves
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Valdezi

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Senn Typhos

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Re: Apostrophes (not apostrophe's)
« Reply #5 on: 25 Jan 2011, 23:35 »

So, wait.

You're trying to eliminate widespread illiteracy/lack of grammatical knowledge with a thread and a newspaper cartoon.

I see a massive hole in this boat.
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Bacchanalian

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Re: Apostrophes (not apostrophe's)
« Reply #6 on: 25 Jan 2011, 23:48 »

I'm venting into the void about it.  Because I'm never going to change humanity.  But maybe I can open a few eyes with my venting rather than simply facedesking for the 50th time today.
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DosTuMai

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Re: Apostrophes (not apostrophe's)
« Reply #7 on: 26 Jan 2011, 07:01 »

Meh. At lea'st I u'se apostophe's properly. It's not like it's difficult or anything' to learn it's pr'oper u'se now, i's it?
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Louella Dougans

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Re: Apostrophes (not apostrophe's)
« Reply #8 on: 26 Jan 2011, 11:04 »

you see it a lot on shop chalkboards. Happens enough for it to be called "The Greengrocer's Apostrophe".

Apple's ! :o
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Raphael Saint

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Re: Apostrophes (not apostrophe's)
« Reply #9 on: 26 Jan 2011, 18:02 »

I wholeheartedly endorse this thread.
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scagga

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Re: Apostrophes (not apostrophe's)
« Reply #10 on: 27 Jan 2011, 02:29 »

Could be more helpful to work on preventing those migraines rather than trying to change the world  ;)

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