It seems that the death sentence has finally been passed on that most problematic of punctuation marks, the apostrophe - in Birmingham, at least. This week Birmingham City Council announced that they would be abolishing the apostrophe - the proper use of which has been the source of much confusion since its first appearance in our langauge 300 years ago - from all newly-produced street signs. You can read more about the reasons for this decision here.This move has inevitably sparked something of a debate. There are those who welcome the termination of the apostrophe's 'rights of residency', arguing that it was never really necessary anyway. Perhaps the strongest supporters of this side of the argument are those behind the Kill the Apostrophe website. On the other hand, more prescriptivist views are expressed by the likes of the Apostrophe Protection Society, whose campaign does exactly what it says on the tin. There's a very handy summary of both sides of the argument here.
So what do you think? Is the apostrophe worth saving or is it better off dead and buried?
1 comment:
There's the obvious one, something like 'Its my dogs'. Without an apostrophe, it's unclear whether the phrase means 'it is my (multiple) dogs, or whether 'it' is an object belonging to the singular dog. Another example is something like 'my friends houses'. With an apostrophe, it becomes clear whether it's 'my friend's houses' (ie. your friend owns a lot of houses) or 'my friends' houses' (ie. you have a lot of friends who each own respective houses). Without apostrophes, words like 'we'll' become 'well', and, probably quite controversially to some religious groups, 'he'll' will become 'hell'. 'I'll' will become 'Ill'. I really think that if people took the time to distinguish between its different uses, English as a language would make a lot more sense. Long live the apostrophe!
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