LINGUIST List 8.933

Thu Jun 26 1997

Disc: Punctuation

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

Directory

1. Jules F. Levin, Re: 8.836, galore?
2. Susan Ervin-Tripp, Re: 8.859, Disc: Punctuation
3. Caroline Ann Leathem, punctuation

Message 1: Re: 8.836, galore?

I just read, belatedly, Alan Harris's communication re
punctuation. What struck me was not the inappropriate "'", but the
word 'galore'. What the heck is that? Is it an obligatorily
post-posed adjective? Is it unique in English? It can't be a matter
of idiomatic phrases, since it seems to me it can be added to noun
plural or mass noun: Come out to our ranch, we've got horses galore,
cattle galore, sheep galore, etc.

Jules Levin

Message 2: Re: 8.859, Disc: Punctuation

>There have been several postings recently decrying the use of
>apostrophe-s to make an English plural form, e.g. "dyslexic's",
>"sonata's".

Well to me it looks like a possessive rather than a plural, so it
would be misleading if used to mean a plural.

As far as I know, on nouns apostrophes only mean plurals except for a
few odd cases where there is some problem in separating symbols, these
aren't those cases since they are just ordinary words, i.e.
anglicized borrowings long since integrated into English.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Susan M. Ervin-Tripp tel (510) 642-7137
Psychology Department FAX (510) 642-5293
University of California ervin-trcogsci.berkeley.edu
Berkeley CA 94720
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Have just come across your mailing on the 12 May re: punctuation.

There is an email punctuation discussion group. 
The subscription address is (as far as I can remember):

		punct-lmilwaukee.tec.wi.us


Hope that this is of some use.

Caroline


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~	Caroline Ann Leathem			~
~	MSc. in Speech and Language Processing	~
~	Edinburgh University			~
~						~
~	email: cleathemling.ed.ac.uk		~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~