Q: "It's" as the possessive?

[Laurence Horn]

At 7:22 AM -0700 8/11/09, Arnold Zwicky wrote:
>On Aug 11, 2009, at 5:39 AM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>
>>At 8/10/2009 03:35 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>>>A correspondent on another list asks, when did "it's" as the
>>>possessive come to be proscribed?
>>
>>I don't think anyone has yet addressed the question asked.  Not when
>>did "it's" arise (the OED is voluble on that).  Not when "it's" began
>>to come (back) into noticeable presence.  But -- when did it come to
>>be *proscribed* (that is, by the prescriptivists)?
>
>MWDEU's entry for "its, it's" cites Lowth 1762 as giving "its" as the
>possessive form of "it", Baker as switching from "it's" in 1770 to
>"its" in 1779, and Lindley Murray 1795 going for "its".  summary:
>
>(p. 566) The possessive pronouns were a complete muddle in the 18th
>century. The grammarians were divided between apostrophized and
>unapostrophized forms, and frequently their own usage contradicted
>whatever conclusions they had reached.
>
>.....
>
>once again, let me recommend that people with questions on english
>usage and the history of prescriptions on points of usage start by
>looking at MWDEU.  it doesn't have everything you might want, but it
>has a lot.
>
>arnold
>
Thanks for the reminder; I'm finally joining the club.  Just ordered
my own copy from amazon, where one can read the glowing review
provided by the first "reader", some guy named Geoffrey K. Pullum.

LH

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