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Joined: Jan 2001
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old hand
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OP
old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
****Note: This post has been certified as apostrophe-free ***
I have seen apostrophes mis-used so often that I am beginning to be numb to this error. Instead of joining the Apostrophe Protection Society (or whatever its called), I have a different proposal. It came to me the other day.
Lets just get rid of the apostrophe.
Yes, yes, I know, it would introduce ambiguities. But to this I say
(1) The apostrophe does not successfully reduce ambiguities as it is used now, primarily because it is mis-used so often that its presence means nothing anymore. It is not safe to assume that if you see one, it is denoting possession, for you may be reading something written by someone who believes it is used for pluralizing. Therefore its role as a clarifier or aid to understanding is lost.
(2) There are plenty of other ambiguities in English which we avoid by understanding the context of what is written. Why not add this (possession vs. plurals) to the list?
I breathlessly await your opinions.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
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While its use may be ambiguous at times, its helpful often enough to keep it. Im so used to it
I dont think Id be comfortable without it. Thats it, and whats what.
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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A friend and I dis'cus'sed this' very problem s'ome time ago and decided that the only 'solution was' to require that every s' have an apo'strophe adjacent to it. In the ca'se of a double s' it would be permis'sible to put the apos'trophe between them.
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Joined: Aug 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Oh Muse, what has become of thine Art?
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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what has become of thine Art?
Last I heard he was heading down to Tucson to escape the winter winds.
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I think wofahulicodoc just looked at his dictionary.
apostrophe
n.
L < Gr apostrophc, a turning away from the audience to address one person < apostrephein < apo3, from + strephein, to turn: see STROPHE6 words addressed to a person or thing, whether absent or present, generally in an exclamatory digression in a speech or literary writing
apostrophic
adj.
a[pos[tro[phe2 7! p9s4tr! fc8
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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... and then there's always anastrophe.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Let no- one demand that we be anastrophe free.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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So what did she win that for?
TEd
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I think wofahulicodoc just looked at his dictionary.
Actually I looked in the dictionary about eleven years ago, when my kid's team couldn't identify the rhetorical device in an "Academic-Olympics"-for-the-tenth-graders contest, and I couldn't either ... now at least I know one such. (Though I'm still not at all clear as to what is a strophe and an antistrophe. They're all Greek to me.)
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