海角大神

In Neal Stephenson鈥檚 novel 鈥淩eamde,鈥� two famous fantasy authors get into a bitter battle over apostrophes. One is a novelist in the mold of J.R.R. Tolkien, who scrupulously constructs languages for the cultures he invents; the other fills his fictional worlds with names that look 鈥渃ool鈥�: 鈥淜鈥橲hetriae,鈥� 鈥淒鈥檜inn.鈥� The Tolkien figure is offended by this wanton punctuation and attacks his fellow author: 鈥淸T]he apostrophe is used to mark an elision鈥� 鈥� just what is it replacing in these words? When the creator of T鈥橰ain cannot answer, the 鈥淎postropocalypse鈥� begins.

In English, although perhaps not in the languages of T鈥橰ain, apostrophes often do indicate that something has been omitted from a word. 颁补苍鈥檛 is a contraction of cannot, the apostrophe replacing the letters 鈥渘o.鈥� The same goes for 蝉丑别鈥檇鈥檝别 (she would have) and 辞鈥檆濒辞肠办 (of the clock), etc. But what is the apostrophe replacing in possessive nouns such as 鈥渢he child鈥檚鈥� or 鈥渢omorrow鈥檚鈥�?

One theory holds that the apostrophe is standing in for a pronoun such as his because of a construction popular in the 16th and 17th centuries. At that time, one way of expressing the genitive, or聽possessive, case was to use phrases like 鈥淩obert Mellor his book鈥� (Robert Mellor鈥檚 book) or 鈥渢he prince his son鈥� (the prince鈥檚 son).聽

According to a rival theory, the possessive apostrophe originated as a way to clear up confusion caused by a different form of the genitive. In Middle English, the plural and the genitive singular were both formed by adding es to a noun, making it difficult to tell them apart. During the Renaissance, printers began to replace the e with an apostrophe to make clear that a noun was possessive.聽

聽The use of 鈥檚 came to be the form of choice to mark possession, which led to a real-life apostropocalypse in the 18th century. Some grammarians thought an apostrophe was always necessary, even in pronouns, and that forms such as 丑别谤鈥檚, 辞耻谤鈥檚, y辞耻谤鈥檚 and 迟丑别颈谤鈥檚 were proper. Some rebelled against its tyranny and declared that of is 鈥渢he only true Sign of the Genitive Case鈥� 鈥� rather than writing 鈥渢he queen鈥檚 horses,鈥� it should be 鈥渢he horses of the queen.鈥澛�

We now have a rough consensus that an apostrophe signals the possessive and a plain s the plural, although there is still debate about a few points. Is it 鈥�1980s鈥� or 鈥�1980鈥檚鈥�? The rules suggest no apostrophe, but in the 鈥�80s schoolchildren were taught to use one. And is it 鈥淢r. Jones鈥� car鈥� or 鈥淢r. Jones鈥檚 car鈥�? Thirty years ago it was the former, now it is the latter.聽

These are minor points, however. A new battle is looming, pitting those who are loyal to the apostrophe and feel that it serves a useful purpose against those who sell 鈥渢ea鈥檚 coffee鈥檚 and snack鈥檚鈥� and reply 鈥淵our welcome.鈥�