[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Seeking Grammar Police Ruling - Typo's / that possessive 's

[Lee Kaiwen]

Mike:

And I always wondered what one does with a surname that ends in s.
.... How would one distinguish between one of the Dents owning
something as opposed to the entire family owning it?

Me:

Two ways. First, the proper plural of Dents is Dentses. Second, with the 
addition of the article: "Dents' (or Dents's) car" vs. "the Dentses' 
car." If you're one who happens to pronounce Dents's and Dentses the 
same, "the" will still distinguish the two.

Of course, for consistency, if one prefers Dents's, one should also 
write Dentses's (and say "Dentseses" ?!), but that's getting mighty 
awkard, indeed.

Speaking of pronunciation, this seems to be largely a case of the 
orthography informing it. Those who add just the apostrophe generally 
pronounce Dents' the same as Dents; those who add 's pronounce it the 
same as Dentses.

Geoff:

Standard UK practice is to add just an apostrophe to a proper
noun, so we would have Sirius' coat or James' wand.

Annemehr:

HA! I knew it! I'm dropping the s too. And here I had been
thinking I'd misremembered my grammar...

And me again:

Well, I can't speak to the British situation, but in the U.S. there is 
no consensus. Journalists generally just add the apostrophe; other 
authorities insist on 's. In this situation "house rules" apply -- i.e., 
check with your publisher.

However, I've read from some authorities that, historically, 's itself 
came about as a contraction of "his" -- e.g., "John his horse" becoming 
"John's horse". Although I'm a bit sceptical (NOT "skeptical") of the 
explanation, if true, then the proper possessive form of James would be 
James's, and the proper pronunciation would be "Jameses".

Annemehr:

Sheesh, next thing you know, it'll be customary to denote plurals
with 's.

Me:

Depends what you mean by "customary". Certainly, it's quite common. 
Whether "common" equates to "acceptable" is a different question.

CJ