does anyone need another example of positive ANYMORE?

James Harbeck jharbeck at SYMPATICO.CA
Thu Feb 14 04:16:32 UTC 2008


>Because it's short for the Marshall's (or Marshalls') residence. I
>think, for example, we write, "I'm going to watch TV on the Marshall's
>big screen", not "Marshalls' big screen". That's why I always thought
>this was a special case of the singular apostrophe.

Whaddya mean "we", paleface? I always use the standard plural form.
If I used "The Marshall's," it would be for one dude, Marshall, who,
like The Donald, was abnormally arthrous.

Makes me think of "didn't use to," which is often rendered as "didn't
used to" -- my dad (a linguist in his earlier years, and one of that
set of people who have given a language its orthography) argued
briefly (some 20 years ago) that the latter was preferred because
"used to" was a fixed form, but I think I dissuaded him.
Notwithstanding which, the latter is of course quite common.

James Harbeck.

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