Is it laziness, ignorance, or sheer apathy toward grammar? Does anyone else feel this way? (if a grammar category existed, this question would be posted there)
2006-07-04 07:45:03 · 8 answers · asked by Rebecca 2 in Education & Reference ➔ Words & Wordplay
I think there's more than one answer to this.
(1) Most people are not learning today (I didn't learn this until about 9th grade, which is late, but at least I did learn it) that pronouns, unlike nouns, do not use the apostrophe for possession. So, "it's", "who's", "your's", "their's", etc. are not supposed to be used for possession. Now notice that you've often seen "it's" and "who's" misused for possession but probably not "your's" and "their's". Why? Because "it's" and "who's" ARE legitimate words when used as contractions for 'it is' and 'who is' respectively. Whereas I cannot think of any legitimate use of "your + is" or "their + is". Therefore, I believe people are confusing the contraction with the possession.
I have even seen "it's" as a possessive in university textbooks!! (I saw these THROUGHOUT THE BOOKS in one computer-science textbook and in one geology textbook!) This could be a sign that in another generation, "it's" as a possessive will be acceptable.
In my opinion, it doesn't make sense that pronouns do NOT use the apostrophe for possessives when nouns DO. But I wasn't around when they were making up the rules.
(2) Another big issue is the plural possessives of nouns. "The boy's room" means the room of one boy; "the boys' room" means the room of two or more boys. I think that's a useful distinction (placing the apostrophe after the "s" when the possessors are more than one). However, the confusion comes in the case of nouns with irregular plurals: in that case, the apostrophe comes before, not after the "s"; so we say "women's clothing", NOT "womens' clothing". In my opinion, it would be more logical and easier for people to remember if the rule were always to put the apostrophe after the "s", even for irregular plurals; in other words, I wish it were correct to write "womens' clothing". I think the more regular the rules, the greater the extent to which people will adhere to them.
(3) Another problem is pairs and triplets like "there's" / "theirs". Anybody who's writing too hastily and doesn't go back to check could potentially make a mistake like this. I try to re-read everything I write because, like most people, I make mistakes here and there. Of course, in my case, I know the rules; so I know what's a mistake and what isn't; and I can fix the mistakes! I'm glad I had some really fine teachers from elementary school all the way through graduate school. Other people were not that lucky.
Paul N, MA Linguistics; BA Linguistics
2006-07-04 09:54:01 · answer #1 · answered by Paul N 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Most likely it's ignorance and excessive dependance on spell-check. Many people aren't being taught, or aren't learning how to use the apostrophe properly. A good read on the subject of grammar is "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" by Lynne Truss.
2006-07-04 07:48:08 · answer #2 · answered by Blue Jean 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
People are way too lazy with grammar, and it is a huge disgrace, I agree. We should protest bad grammar and have all that see the English language as a joke be shot! Alright, that might be overdoing it a little, but seriously... America's education system needs higher standards if you ask me.
2006-07-04 07:58:22 · answer #3 · answered by KousukeAsazuki 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's that damn possessive tense!
Is that a tense?
Dunno but seriously - apostrophes show up too many places...
It's cold.
Its' cold.
Who's cold?
Whos' cold.
See... I've already begun drooling just trying to figure out what I've just said.
You can pretty much stick an apostrophe anywhere and it looks right...
edit: oh and in my case, 60/40 split - apathy/retardation
2006-07-07 07:04:23 · answer #4 · answered by nowyermessingwithasonofabitch 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
What do you mean by misusing the apostrophe? I was not aware of any such problem in existence. I am writing a letter to my congressman. This crime has got to be stopped.
2006-07-04 07:49:13 · answer #5 · answered by texasgirl5454312 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because the english language is so confusing at times.
2006-07-04 07:49:25 · answer #6 · answered by the Politics of Pikachu 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes! It's all of the above! I'm with you.
2006-07-04 07:49:07 · answer #7 · answered by surlygurl 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
My pet peeve! Your, you're, they're, their, there. Don't you get a twinge in your stomach and a clench in your jaw when you see "your welcome" instead of "you're welcome"
2006-07-04 10:27:27 · answer #8 · answered by PuttPutt 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋