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“There never was a golden age in which the rules for the possessive apostrophe were clear-cut and known, understood and followed by most educated people.”
PUNCTUATION
APOSTROPHE
The English language first picked up the apostrophe in the 16th century. The word in Greek means "turning away", and hence "omission" or "elision". In classical texts, it was used to mark dropped letters.
At some point in the 17th century, however, printers started to intrude an apostrophe before the “s” in singular possessive cases (possessive “its” was originally formed with an apostrophe in the 17th century, but it had been dropped by the early 19th century, presumably to make it more similar to the other personal pronoun possessives).
In the 18th century, printers started to put it after plural possessives as well (“my students’ success”).
So what are the jobs an apostrophe currently has on its CV?
Let’s name all the essential tasks the apostrophe is obliged to execute every day one by one.
1. a possessive in a singular noun:
The teacher’s work
When the owner is a plural noun that does not end in an “s”, the apostrophe similarly precedes the “s”:
The children’s tests
Women’s rights
But if the possessor is a regular plural, the apostrophe follows the “s”:
Teachers’ work deserves admiration. That goes
without saying.
2 time or quantity:
in one year’s time
three days’ notice
a dollar’s worth of change
3 the omission of figures in dates:
Mary was born in June of ’86.
4 It indicates the omission of letters:
We can’t go there tonight, I s’pose.
5 strange, non-standard English:
“I mean as ‘appen Ah can find anuther pleece as’ll
du for rearin’ th’ pheasants. If yer want ter be ‘ere,
yo’ll non want me messin’ abaht a’ th’ time.”
She looked at him, getting his meaning through the
fog of the dialect. “Why don’t you speak ordinary
English?” she said coldly.
6 in Irish names:
O’Neill and O’Casey
7 the plurals of letters:
In the winter months, his R’s blew off (old Peter
Cook and Dudley Moore joke, explaining the
mysterious zoo sign “T OPICAL FISH, THIS WAY”).
8 plurals of words:
What are the do’s and don’t’s?
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1 минута
22 апреля 2024