|
|
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636 |
Yu da man, Brandon
consuelo
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
In the style guide at the back of the Oxford Canadian Dictionary, it gives the non-apostrophe pluralization rule for abbreviations. I think we'd seen it with the apostrophe so often that we were used to it (at least I was) and now the non-apostrophe version looks a little awkward. I've been using it recently for my papers for school and it's kind of growing on me.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
So long ago that I have forgotten the details, I read that an early form of the possessive was : " the man his arm...."
I am disappointed that none of our philologists has discussed this. So the apostrophe just replaces the "his".
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Dr. Bill notes: that an early form of the possessive was : " the man his arm...." and is disappointed that none of our philologists has discussed this.
ProblyŽ because, like so many of my dimly remembered bits of wisdom, it is an old wive's tale. I am sure tsuwm or NicholasW or another of our well-versed philologists could document this.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Dear Faldage: It was in a scholarly tome in Widener Library that I read it. No old wives tailing (sic) to it.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 218
enthusiast
|
|
enthusiast
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 218 |
an early form of the possessive was : " the man his arm...."
I have read some notes scattered about that point towards the "man his arm" theory behind the adoption of the apostrophe, but the more accepted (correct me, others) theory is that the genetive singular form most often used ended in -es (reached back into the days when the language had cases). In the Middle English inflectional system, the accusative and dative cases were replaced with prepositions, but the genetive did the trick using an apostrophe. The unstressed e dropped out of pronunciation, and writers placed an apostrophe to indicate the dropped letter (some sources debate whether the apostrophe denotes an omission).
Brandon
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 544
addict
|
|
addict
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 544 |
Faldage discounts an etymology thus: it is an old wive's tale
Is it the tale of one wife or of some wives? Has the possessive got you too? Are you possessed?
(Or perhaps it's the dreaded wive, a mythical beast of central Africa, known for its maffling call.)
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Hyla astutely notices old wive's tale
The genitive singular of the OE wif, woman was wifes. An f between two vowels was voiced. This bit of grammar has come down to us in the phrase old wive's tale.
That's *my story and I'm sticking to *it.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 544
addict
|
|
addict
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 544 |
Ya know, I stared at it and stared at it and couldn't figure out how I'd change it to make it look "right."
Now I know why.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
What I've got here is David Crystal's story on the apostrophe: nowhere in his Encyclopedia of the English Language does he mention the hypothesis Dr Bill brought up; instead, he says it was introduced by 16th century printers simply as a way to indicate a missing letter. By the 18th century, as Brandon said, it became a marker for the possessive, first denoting the genitive singular, then the plural. Crystal addresses the apostrophe in several different places in his wondrous work. I could quote chapters and verses, but it's got an index 
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,351
Members9,182
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
0 members (),
888
guests, and
0
robots. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
