Corpora: RE: Apostrophes

[Arnold J Kreps]

>Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2001 12:17:48 +0000 (GMT)
>From: "Simon G. J. Smith" <smithsgj at eee.bham.ac.uk>
>Subject: Corpora: Apostrophes
>To: corpora at hd.uib.no
>
>I suppose when I referred to the status of 1L and 2L English I was
thinking more of the language itself than its orthographical
representation, but it certainly is interesting that native writers cannot
agree on apostrophe/letter "s" usage. I went to a school called Lord
Williams's School (founded by one Lord Williams), and it was drummed into
us time and time again that the school's name should be spelt that way
because Williams is a singular form. Now, though, I regularly read to my
son from a book called "Thomas' Train" (of tank engine fame). If I were
guided by the pronunciation, I would write "Lord Williams' School" and
"Thomas's train"; so presumably pronunciation has nothing to do with it,
and the alternatives are in arbitrary free variation.
>

Simon G. J. Smith's observation is discussed in section 5.114, "The `zero
genitive'" in Quirk, Leech, Greenbaum & Svartvik's _Comprehensive Grammar
of the English Language_. The authors note that the `zero genitive' (that
is, the genitive without the -s) can be used for names ending in sibilants
that are pronounced /z/ (Williams' or Williams's), but is not used for
names ending in sibilants that are pronounced /s/ (Thomas's but not Thomas').

Regards,

Arnold J Kreps
Nijmegen University