LINGUIST List 8.836

Sat Jun 7 1997

Disc: Punctuation

Editor for this issue: Ann Dizdar <annlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. alan harris, Re: 8.774, Disc: Punctuation

Message 1: Re: 8.774, Disc: Punctuation

In the San Fernando Valley, on Chatsworth Blvd at Balboa, is a sign
with "Salad's Galore." I have often mused about what a 'galore' might
be and why 'salad' owned it!

The error of inserting the apostrophe for a plural (nonpossessive) is
seemingly endemic amongst college students in Southern California,
too. Even though I give them fact sheets warning against such a
usage, I get the error quite regularly on term papers--especially with
"longer" or less frequently used plurals, i.e., "boys" or "names"
comes out all right but "linguist's" (PL.) or "dyslexic's" do not fare
so well. I would submit that it is not only endemic but epidemic!
However, it is a part and parcel of orthographic change in this part
of the twentieth century and probably rates right up there with
"alright, "alot," and "nitelite." cheers, ach

 ===============================================================
 Alan C. Harris, Ph. D. TELNOS: main off: 818-677-2853
 Professor, Communication/Linguistics direct off: 818-677-2874
 Speech Communication Department
 California State University, Northridge home: 818-366-3165
 SPCH CSUN FAX: 818-677-2663 
 Northridge, CA 91330-8257 INTERNET email: ALAN.HARRISCSUN.EDU 
 WWW homepage: http://www.csun.edu/~vcspc005
 ===============================================================