From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Drew Adams" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: RE: Possessive apostrophe with singular nouns ending in "s" Date: Thu, 23 Feb 2012 10:36:08 -0800 Message-ID: References: <8139a1jtnk.fsf@gmail.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1330022184 12628 80.91.229.3 (23 Feb 2012 18:36:24 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 23 Feb 2012 18:36:24 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org To: "'Jambunathan K'" , "'Glenn Morris'" Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Thu Feb 23 19:36:23 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 1S0dWg-0004wx-VO for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:36:23 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:52016 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1S0dWg-0001Ix-FH for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Thu, 23 Feb 2012 13:36:22 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([140.186.70.92]:48389) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1S0dWe-0001Io-FO for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 23 Feb 2012 13:36:21 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1S0dWY-00057c-OF for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 23 Feb 2012 13:36:20 -0500 Original-Received: from rcsinet15.oracle.com ([148.87.113.117]:43888) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1S0dWY-00057X-Ey; Thu, 23 Feb 2012 13:36:14 -0500 Original-Received: from ucsinet22.oracle.com (ucsinet22.oracle.com [156.151.31.94]) by rcsinet15.oracle.com (Sentrion-MTA-4.2.2/Sentrion-MTA-4.2.2) with ESMTP id q1NIaBR9009796 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=OK); Thu, 23 Feb 2012 18:36:12 GMT Original-Received: from acsmt358.oracle.com (acsmt358.oracle.com [141.146.40.158]) by ucsinet22.oracle.com (8.14.4+Sun/8.14.4) with ESMTP id q1NIaAnP026620 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO); Thu, 23 Feb 2012 18:36:11 GMT Original-Received: from abhmt119.oracle.com (abhmt119.oracle.com [141.146.116.71]) by acsmt358.oracle.com (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11) with ESMTP id q1NIaA5N027834; Thu, 23 Feb 2012 12:36:10 -0600 Original-Received: from dradamslap1 (/130.35.178.194) by default (Oracle Beehive Gateway v4.0) with ESMTP ; Thu, 23 Feb 2012 10:36:09 -0800 X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook 11 In-Reply-To: <8139a1jtnk.fsf@gmail.com> Thread-Index: AczyWExqqnkYj+fsRx+PsLLXEXAF5wAASbGw X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.6157 X-Source-IP: ucsinet22.oracle.com [156.151.31.94] X-CT-RefId: str=0001.0A090201.4F46871C.00E6,ss=1,re=0.000,fgs=0 X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6 (newer, 1) X-Received-From: 148.87.113.117 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:148742 Archived-At: > If the "subject" is Emacs - It is Emacs'(s) manual right? - then the > above controversy can altogether be avoided by dropping > self-references altogether. Even if there is a need, one can use > runtime etc. and still make herself understood by the reader. Good point. In fact, many (most?) technical writing style guidelines call for avoiding such possessives. It is, I think, increasingly common to see, e.g., "the object name" instead of "the object's name". (I have no possessive apostrophes in the doc I write, for instance.)