Punctuation and spelling have been our topics the past couple of months. It’s time to have fun with them. First of all, trying the name of this column “The Poets Corner” with no apostrophe. Heavens forfend!! What would my fourth grade teacher, Miss Sims, have to say about that?
Althya Youngman founded Artists Embassy International in the 1950s. Ahead of her time, she preferred no apostrophe in “Artists.” With the informality of the Internet, Althya’s choice is now widespread. “Althya’s choice”? Well, habits persist.
What we are doing when we leave out an apostrophe is saying, “The context tells us what’s going on. You don’t need the silly apostrophe!” And, yes, I’ve used two apostrophes to say that! It’s really the same thing that happened when the printing press came in.
When written language gets transferred to the printing press — or the internet — usage changes. With the printing press alone, formalities of spelling came into being. But as more diverse social groups got their thoughts into print, the more usage changed and “rules” were “broken.” The more people share a writing system, the more varied it becomes. We tend to think, consciously or not, that we are simplifying, while we are actually multiplying the points of view about communicating in words.
Althya Youngman founded Artists Embassy International in the 1950s. Ahead of her time, she preferred no apostrophe in “Artists.” With the informality of the Internet, Althya’s choice is now widespread. “Althya’s choice”? Well, habits persist.
What we are doing when we leave out an apostrophe is saying, “The context tells us what’s going on. You don’t need the silly apostrophe!” And, yes, I’ve used two apostrophes to say that! It’s really the same thing that happened when the printing press came in.
When written language gets transferred to the printing press — or the internet — usage changes. With the printing press alone, formalities of spelling came into being. But as more diverse social groups got their thoughts into print, the more usage changed and “rules” were “broken.” The more people share a writing system, the more varied it becomes. We tend to think, consciously or not, that we are simplifying, while we are actually multiplying the points of view about communicating in words.