Excellent point. It’s not that people have forgotten how to use the apostrophe. It’s that they’ve never learned.

 

The problem is that the apostrophe has no sound equivalent. Period represents a full stop and falling intonation, comma marks a pause, question mark has rising intonation, and so on. With apostrophe, bupkis. Dogs, dog’s, and dogs’ sound exactly alike. No wonder people can’t get it right.

 

Dick Veit

 

________________________

 

Richard Veit

Department of English, UNCW

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Stahlke, Herbert F.W.
Sent: Tuesday, June 06, 2006 9:40 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Possessive form

 

Paul and Nancy,

 

You have reinforced the impression that there is a lot of confusion, even in the style guides people use, on some uses of the apostrophe.  I don't believe this is a new thing.  There has always been a fairly high degree of variability in the use of apostrophes, from the universally condemned "green-grocer's apostrophe" ("fresh apple's today), to the pretty widely recognized apostrophe in contractions.  It isn't that there was at some point in history a well defined set of rules, and since then the apostrophe, like the rest of the English language, standards have collapsed.  Rather, there's been a effort since the mid-19th to codify the use of this odd orthographic tic, and most people haven't bothered to master the rules, can't find a standard set, or don't really care.  It's the ongoing near-chaos that is the English language.

 

Herb