a "thats" possessive on the national news

[Joel S. Berson]

At 3/26/2011 11:32 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>Good work, Joel.

Oh dear.  As a prescriptivist, I was just intending to show that it
was *not* used frequently -- only about 15,000 raw (an appropriate
adjective?) Ghits.

It's a shame 19th Century U.S. Newspapers won't let "that's"
pass.  Hidden prescriptivism?

Going back to Google after this disappointment and trying "idea thats
time has come" (quoted but no apostrophe) -- for which Google asks me
" Did you mean: "idea that's time has come" " -- I find fewer Ghits:
about 2,370.  And leaving off "an", "idea that's time has come" rises
to about 25,900.  (Should these be added together?)

Google News gives very few hits for "idea that's/thats time has come"
-- but some: around 75?  (I used both "Archives" and "Custom Range".)

And none in Google News / Blogs??  Whose where I would expect to find
lot's of that's.

Joel

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org