8.737, Disc: Punctuation

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LINGUIST List:  Vol-8-737. Fri May 16 1997. ISSN: 1068-4875.

Subject: 8.737, Disc: Punctuation

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1)
Date:  Thu, 15 May 1997 16:27:16 +1000
From:  John Atkinson <johna at tiny.me.su.OZ.AU>
Subject:  Re: 8.726, Disc: Punctuation

2)
Date:  Thu, 15 May 1997 23:54:09 -0400 (EDT)
From:  Gethsemani at aol.com
Subject:  Re: 8.726, Disc: Punctuation

-------------------------------- Message 1 -------------------------------

Date:  Thu, 15 May 1997 16:27:16 +1000
From:  John Atkinson <johna at tiny.me.su.OZ.AU>
Subject:  Re: 8.726, Disc: Punctuation

At 00:49 15/05/97 -0400, Roger Lass wrote:

>. . . This also accounts for the almost universal it's for the possessive
>pronoun (though here there's an analogy to the genitive of nouns: but
>why not *hi's, *her's, which I've never seen).

I've just been reading "Emma".  Jane Austen standardly writes "her's",
"their's", "your's" (but not "hi's"!).  Was this standard practice back then
(first decade of the last century)?

John


-------------------------------- Message 2 -------------------------------

Date:  Thu, 15 May 1997 23:54:09 -0400 (EDT)
From:  Gethsemani at aol.com
Subject:  Re: 8.726, Disc: Punctuation

I, too, am fascinated by the insertion of the apostrophe, but it cannot be a
transference from Afrikaans because it is ubiquitous in the writing of native
speakers of many other languages and even in the writing of native speakers
of English, uneducated and even educated.

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