LINGUIST List 4.78

Sun 07 Feb 1993

Disc: Last Posting: Greengrocer's Apostrophe

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. , RE: 4.45 That's
2. "CONNOLLY LEO A", RE: 4.69 Greengrocer's Apostrophe
3. Geoffrey Russom, Re: 4.69 Greengrocer's Apostrophe

Message 1: RE: 4.45 That's

A new version of "greengrocer's apostrophe" has just occurred in a level 2
undergraduate essay on semantics that I am marking, which I append to show
Prof. Sussex that it's not just a matter of pluralization. I quote:

 "... because they (these expressions, unimportant to the topic of
 "greengrocer's apostrophe") require information for the listener to
 understand what they mean't."

Message 2: RE: 4.69 Greengrocer's Apostrophe

Surely the relevant thing about the German example:

 Stet's zu Ihren Diensten

is that it's a pun: read it as _steht's_ 'it stands', and the apostrophe
is correct, though the word order is fishy.

--Leo Connolly

Message 3: Re: 4.69 Greengrocer's Apostrophe

Might "Those that's heard" be from "those that has heard" in Stu's
example from Yorkshire dialect? Agreement of this sort is often encountered
in nonstandard Englishes (cf. "Them that has, gets").

-- Rick