Query Details
| Query Subject: |
Apostrophe rules
|
| Author: | Daniel Buncic |
| Submitter Email: | click here to access email |
| Query: |
Dear Linguist List, The apostrophe is often neglected in graphemic descriptions (it is regarded neither a proper punctuation mark nor a letter). At the same time it is the object of a fervent battle against popular misspellings in several languages (e.g. English _thank's_, _is'nt_, German _Peter's Kneipe_, _gib'_). This and other observations have given me the idea that the true function of the apostrophe is misunderstood if it is defined as a mark of omission. Instead, in my opinion it should be defined exclusively as a marker of morpheme-boundaries (probably in all languages!). I am writing a comparative paper about this, so I would be happy if you could help me with the following questions: 1. Where are apostrophes placed in your language? 2. Do the rules define it as a mark of omission, as a marker of boundaries, or as something else? 3. Are there frequent deviations from the rules? 4. Do you know any historical data about the origin of the apostrophe? Why does it look the way it looks (')? Thank you very much in advance. Please send your answers to dbuncic@web.de, and I will post a summary to the list. Daniel Buncic ================================================= Bonn University Seminar of Slavonic Philology Lennéstr. 1, D-53113 Bonn Phone: + 49 228 73-7203 E-mail: dbuncic@web.de Homepage: http://www.uni-bonn.de/~dbuncic/ ================================================= |
