I'll concede the point regarding the antiquity of the confusion over the apostrophe. Maybe I'm wrong about it dying -- I hope so. I don't know that I agree 100% about Dick's "sound" explanation (no pun intended) -- only about 95%. Yes there's no aural difference in the possessive, but I think there is a difference in contractions (can't sounds very different from cannot). One problem I have in teaching this issue is that many high school students spell can't without the apostrophe, which makes it an entirely different word -- a word that is hardly in their vocabulary. They often do the same with won't. 
 
To add to the confusion, can't and cant sound alike, but won't and wont do not -- in fact wont sounds  like want. I can't escape the occasional need to stop and explain (teach?) these differences, but like many other mini-lessons, the information doesn't always stick! Those of us who teach Shakespeare, have to deal with this one from time to time.
 
I suspect that you've now had enough of my apostrophe cant! 
 
Cheers,
 
paul

----- Original Message ----
From: "Veit, Richard" <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Wednesday, June 7, 2006 9:19:40 AM
Subject: Re: Possessive form


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
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