From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Stephen J. Turnbull" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Possessive apostrophe with singular nouns ending in "s" Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2012 14:10:48 +0900 Message-ID: <874nugn7dz.fsf@uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> References: <4F467C7E.3040405@dogan.se> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1330060263 11416 80.91.229.3 (24 Feb 2012 05:11:03 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2012 05:11:03 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Deniz Dogan Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Fri Feb 24 06:11:02 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 1S0nQs-0007Nh-Jq for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Fri, 24 Feb 2012 06:11:02 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:41087 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1S0nQr-0003b8-I0 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Fri, 24 Feb 2012 00:11:01 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([140.186.70.92]:47564) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1S0nQp-0003b1-Cj for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 24 Feb 2012 00:11:00 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1S0nQn-0000FF-HM for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 24 Feb 2012 00:10:58 -0500 Original-Received: from mgmt2.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp ([130.158.97.224]:53934) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1S0nQn-0000Es-65 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 24 Feb 2012 00:10:57 -0500 Original-Received: from uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp [130.158.99.156]) by mgmt2.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7ED189707DF; Fri, 24 Feb 2012 14:10:48 +0900 (JST) Original-Received: by uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (Postfix, from userid 1000) id 3E5DA1A25CD; Fri, 24 Feb 2012 14:10:48 +0900 (JST) In-Reply-To: <4F467C7E.3040405@dogan.se> X-Mailer: VM undefined under 21.5 (beta31) "ginger" e6b5c49f9e13 XEmacs Lucid (x86_64-unknown-linux) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6 (newer, 3) X-Received-From: 130.158.97.224 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:148758 Archived-At: Deniz Dogan writes: > What does grammar say? Is it a corner-case? Does it differ depending > on locale? Early-to-mid 1900s grammar says without any self-critical doubt whatsoever that for a singular noun ending in "s" the possessive is formed by adding "'s". Before and after grammar says either is OK, with after grammar having a footnote saying that early-to-mid-1900s grammarians were fascist usurpers of the people's right to determine their own language, as evidenced by the usage of before grammar. Before grammar has no footnotes referring to after grammar, though. With-tongue-firmly-in-cheeks's-ly y'rs, P.S. Personally I favor "Emacs's".