Eats, Shoots and Leaves. Lynne Truss
which would have had the regrettable result of making people sound a) a bit stupid, b) a bit drunk, or c) a bit from the West Country.
So what are the jobs an apostrophe currently has on its CV? Before we start tearing out our hair at sloppy, ignorant current usage, first let us acknowledge the sobering wisdom of the Oxford Companion to English Literature: “There never was a golden age in which the rules for the possessive apostrophe were clear-cut and known, understood and followed by most educated people.” And then let us check that we know the rules of what modern grammarians call “possessive determiners” and “possessive pronouns” – none of which requires an apostrophe.
Possessive determiners
| my | our |
| your | your |
| his | their |
| her | their |
| its | their |
Possessive pronouns
| mine | ours |
| yours | yours |
| his | theirs |
| hers | theirs |
| its | theirs |
And now, let us just count the various important tasks the apostrophe is obliged to execute every day.
1 It indicates a possessive in a singular noun:
The boy’s hat
The First Lord of the Admiralty’s rather smart front door
This seems simple. But not so fast, Batman. When the possessor is plural, but does not end in an “s”, the apostrophe similarly precedes the “s”:
The children’s playground
The women’s movement
But when the possessor is a regular plural, the apostrophe follows the “s”:
The boys’ hats (more than one boy)
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
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