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| Date: | Mon, 5 Jun 2006 21:16:26 -0400 |
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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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>
>--part1_467.2d7a96c.31b5fbe7_boundary
>Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
>
><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>
>To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at:
> http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
>and select "Join or leave the list"
><p>
>Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/
>--part1_467.2d7a96c.31b5fbe7_boundary--
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