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<small><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">Around here that
floating apostrophe is called a "Greengrocers' apostrophe".<br>
<br>
:-)<br>
<br>
Personally, I think we should get rid of the possessive apostrophe
altogether. It intruded in (IIRC) the 17th century after we had gotten
along without it for ages. If we did that, greengrocers could reserve
it entirely as an indication of the plural.<br>
<br>
I liked the title of that book. <br>
<br>
Peter<br>
</font></small><br>
Owen Rudge wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid02d101c69f7e$ce95fe70$0c01a8c0@rudgexp" type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">Well, should such grammar ever appear to be
in short supply, be sure to prod
<br>
me and I'll wheel out one of my usual overly-long, semicolon- (not to
<br>
mention parenthetical comment-)infested sentences; they're always good
for a
<br>
laugh or two, especially when I read back to edit my post slightly and
can't
<br>
quite remember what my point was to start with. Bah.
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
Funny we should be talking about grammar, I got a hold of "Eats, Shoots
and Leaves" the other day and was reading it on the nice long flights
back from San Francisco to Edinburgh yesterday/today. Such sentences
and reasons for them featured heavily; it's most interesting. Plus, I'm
generally rather a pedant when it comes to grammar, particularly such
things as apostrophes (there's a most annoying shop nearby called
"Bedding, Bit's and Bob's" - I cringe every time I walk past it), so it
made for an interesting read.
<br>
<br>
</blockquote>
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