DCML Digest, Vol 37, Issue 11

Donald D. Markstein ddmarkstein at cox.net
Mon Mar 13 12:24:40 CET 2006


> I also ascribe to the "s-apostrophe" rather than the "s-apostrophe-s" 
> rule, which seems illogical, and is, because Americans at least will 
> ad an extra "s" as in /Barkses stories/ when they pronounce the 
> possessive of Barks.  Still, I have never liked the way it looks!  And 
> so, even though the sound is there, I will not write an extra  gentive 
> "s" for a word ending in -s.
>
> Illogical, but that's English!
>

No it isn't. Not correct English, anyway. Tell me, do you also "ascribe" 
(look it up) to the practice of using an apostrophe to form plurals? 
That, too, is a popular but grossly incorrect way of dealing with 
English nouns.

>In English, some proper names, such as "Paris", are typically written in
>singular, while other proper names, such as "Athens", are typically in
>plural.  Does this mean that the correct genitive cases for those place
>names are "Paris's" and "Athens'" respectively?  How do you know if a
>proper name is singular or plural?
>  
>

"Athens" is plural? I never heard that one before. So, what does it mean 
to speak of one Athen?

Quack, Don
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