From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Alan Mackenzie Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Possessive apostrophe with singular nouns ending in "s" Date: Thu, 23 Feb 2012 18:27:04 +0000 Message-ID: <20120223182704.GB2834@acm.acm> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1330021680 8758 80.91.229.3 (23 Feb 2012 18:28:00 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 23 Feb 2012 18:28:00 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Glenn Morris Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Thu Feb 23 19:28:00 2012 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([140.186.70.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1S0dOZ-0007Lr-SA for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:28:00 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:60294 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1S0dOZ-0007rM-BQ for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Thu, 23 Feb 2012 13:27:59 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([140.186.70.92]:59448) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1S0dOX-0007rH-Ej for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 23 Feb 2012 13:27:58 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1S0dOI-0003Mu-RJ for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 23 Feb 2012 13:27:57 -0500 Original-Received: from colin.muc.de ([193.149.48.1]:40156 helo=mail.muc.de) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1S0dOI-0003Md-I0 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 23 Feb 2012 13:27:42 -0500 Original-Received: (qmail 27225 invoked by uid 3782); 23 Feb 2012 18:27:41 -0000 Original-Received: from acm.muc.de (pD9557DC3.dip.t-dialin.net [217.85.125.195]) by colin.muc.de (tmda-ofmipd) with ESMTP; Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:27:36 +0100 Original-Received: (qmail 3206 invoked by uid 1000); 23 Feb 2012 18:27:04 -0000 Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.21 (2010-09-15) X-Delivery-Agent: TMDA/1.1.12 (Macallan) X-Primary-Address: acm@muc.de X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Genre and OS details not recognized. X-Received-From: 193.149.48.1 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:148740 Archived-At: Hi, Glenn. On Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 12:48:17PM -0500, Glenn Morris wrote: > A critical question. What is the standard form in GNU manuals for using > the possessive apostrophe with singular nouns ending in "s"? > This is one of Emacs's most important features. > or > This is one of Emacs' most important features. > Currently there are ~ 46 instances of the former in the manuals, and 63 of > the latter. I favour the former. Me too. Presumably you use "Morris's" too, when you get to be possessive. A good ground for this choice is consistency and logic - if adding "'s" is the normal method of possessivisation, why depart from it unnecessarily? -- Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).