Of course, life is probably more complicated than Wikipedia will allow. I believe that the history of the apostrophe as apossessive marker is also more complex. You might want to check out the following paper:
http://www.american.edu/tesol/wpkernodlecavella.pdf
I sheds some light, or rather thins out some fo the shadow, on this history.
More to the point, I think, is the question of what's happening to the apostrophe now. It seems to me that it's dying a slow, agonizing death! I for one will miss it (of course. Bernard Shaw ignored it, and no one seems to think the less of him because of that!).
Paul D.
----- Original Message ----
From: Max Morenberg <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Monday, June 5, 2006 9:16:26 PM
Subject: Re: Possessive form
Peter,
I haven't read into the history of punctuation in a long time. But I think the "his" story has little or no reality. Here is the wikipedia.com explanation:
Despite the above, the English possessive did originate in a genitive case. In Old English, a common singular genitive ending was -es. The apostrophe in the modern possessive marker is in fact an indicator of the e that is "missing" from the Old English morphology. . . .
The 18th century explanation that the apostrophe might replace a genitive pronoun, as in "the king's horse" being a shortened form of "the king, his horse", is erroneous (a construction which actually occurs in German dialects and has replaced the genitive there, together with the "of" construction that also exists in English).
Ain't wikipedia great?
Max
I seem to remember reading somewhere that the "'s" was actually a contraction
for "his." I think when a person who doesn't write makes a mark on a
document, we write undert it "John Doe his mark." This is the "his" that is now
contracted into "'s." Any truth to this?
Peter Adams
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<HTML><FONT FACE=3Darial,helvetica><HTML><FONT COLOR=3D"#000000" FACE=3D"Gen=
eva" FAMILY=3D"SANSSERIF" SIZE=3D"2">I seem to remember reading somewhere th=
at the "'s" was actually a contraction for "his." I think when a pers=
on who doesn't write makes a mark on a document, we write undert it "John Do=
e his mark." This is the "his" that is now contracted into "'s." =
; Any truth to this?<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
Peter Adams<BR>
</FONT><FONT COLOR=3D"#000000" FACE=3D"Geneva" FAMILY=3D"SANSSERIF" SIZE=3D"=
2"></FONT></HTML>
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<p>
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