Friday, March 25, 2022

The Four Apostrophes of the Apocalypse

The above photo is from a furniture store I believe to be in Australia, because @justjenking, an Australian journalist re-Tweeted it from @biglhist. No matter. The photo to me is the best proof that the apostrophe should be eliminated from grammatical usage when attempting to denote singular possessive and plural possessive. It is the most misused of all the punctuation marks, and does nothing for the pronunciation or the cadence of the words or sentence. 

Eliminate the misused apostrophes from the signage and nothing is pronounced differently. Add the apostrophe where is seems to be missing from Goodwyns name and you still say, Goodwyns, Sofas,  Chairs, Recliners, Beds, no?

By the tortuous rules in place, Goodwyns needs an apostrophe, and the rest of the signage doesn't. The poor schmuck who thought they were doing good just held themselves up to the grammar police for perpetual, trending ridicule.

The effect might just work in their favor, as elementary school teachers might just take the kids out for a field trip to give them an example of the misuse of the apostrophe. That way, the kids can go home, perhaps absorbing the lesson or not, but can tell their parent that today, "we went to Goodwyns." "Oh, that's nice. Dad and I need to go there for some furniture. There is no bad publicity.

In Lynne Truss's seminal book on punctuation, 'Eats, Shoots and Leaves', she devotes no less than 32! pages to unraveling the usage for the apostrophe. Being a grammar scholar she gives use the history of the apostrophe. Everything has a back story, and the apostrophe is no different.

Apparently, the word apostrophe comes from the Greek meaning "turning away." And hence "omission" or "elision" used to denote dropped letters. Oh, only if it stayed there in usage elementary school children would score better on their exams, only having to learn about contractions. "Its and "it's" mean  two different things. This was its use in the 16th century: denote a dropping of a letter.

But apparently well enough was not left alone. Printers in the 17th century started putting apostrophes before the "s" in possessive cases. Printers! Was this a typo? We have been made to suffer because someone long ago in a print shop thought they should do this? Who told them to do this? The apostrophe fairy?

That's bad enough, but forward to the 18th century and printers! again started placing the apostrophe after the "s" to denote plural possessive. Since no one is currently alive who was alive in the 17th century, we can't lead these printers to the gas chamber. It's too late.

The use of the apostrophe for reasons other than the omission of letters is what has the world walking around with their underwear in a bunch.  And it's why Ms. Truss and other grammar and punctuation experts need so many pages to tell us how to properly apply the apostrophe when there is a possessive word. The rules are diabolical.

Thus, we get people like the poor people who created Goodwyn's sign, think they were being erudite and applying what they surely didn't learn in school. Perhaps they were sick the day the teacher's lesson plan covered apostrophes. Perhaps it wasn't in their curriculum. Whatever the reason, their misuse is painful to look at.

I've said it before. How do you pronounce an apostrophe? Ms. Truss makes uses the movie title "Two Weeks Notice" as a jumping off point to try and impart correct usage of the detested apostrophe. Why not just say: Two Week Notice? I'm giving my "two week notice" in. Two is the adjective for week. Is any meaning lost?

We are stuck with the mark because of some printers hundreds of years ago. Ms. Truss is sympathetic when she tells us, "let us acknowledge the sobering wisdom of the Oxford Companion in English Literature" (once the word Oxford creeps in you know you're dealing with scholars):

Thee never was a golden age  in which the rules for the possessive apostrophe were clear-cut and known, understood and followed by the most educated people.

The Goodwyns in the Australian furniture store shouldn't feel so bad. Few get it for what passes for right these days.

http://www.onofframp.blogspot.com


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