The closing of the Apostrophe Protection Society because of the ‘ignorance and laziness’ of the general public strikes a body blow against those fighting for correct English. This column was prompted by the news that, after 18 years of existence, the British Apostrophe Protection Society had been disbanded by its founder and chairman, retired journalist John Richards, because, in his words, “the ignorance and laziness present in modern times have won!” Despite his best efforts, he told the media, he lost the battle for proper usage of the “much abused” apostrophe. The apostrophe was introduced into English in the 16th century in imitation of French practice; but just as English has dropped the various accent marks that still abound in French, some feel the apostrophe should be dispensed with as superfluous and unnecessary.
apostrophe (noun), a punctuation mark indicating an omitted letter (rendered ’)
This humble punctuation mark is more often misunderstood and misused than any other. Derived from the Late Latin apostrophus and the Greek apostrophos, signifying turning away, it first referred to an orator turning aside in the course of a speech to address someone briefly before returning to his audience. But now it stands for a mark showing where a letter has been omitted in a word. In English, the mark often stands in for “i”, as in “it’s” for “it is”, or indicates possession (“Modi’s government”), or marks contractions (“I’ll”, rather than “I will”, or “’twas” for “it was”). Sometimes, more disputably, it’s used for abbreviations, as in T’puram for Thiruvananthapuram, or to indicate the plurals of numbers (“three 7’s”), letters (“there are four s’s and two p’s in Mississippi”), symbols (“too many &’s and # ’s”), acronyms (“mind your p’s and q’s”) or decadal dates (“he was stoned through most of the ‘70’s”). Another distinct function of the apostrophe is disambiguation (to make your meaning clear); more on this later.
[However, as grammarians and rhetoricians will tell you, that is not all. We apostrophize when we address or appeal to someone who is not present --”Oh Mahatma Gandhi, where are you now when we really need you?” That too is called an apostrophe. But unless you are given to such overly dramatic flourishes, this form of apostrophe need not detain us much here.]
The apostrophe as a punctuation mark, however, poses ordinary users of English a number of problems. The most common is people’s tendency to use “it’s” when they mean “its” – a confusion arising, no doubt, from the assumption that the apostrophe is needed to indicate possession (but “its” is that curse of all grammar students, an exception). Also on the list of challenges would be when the possessive use of the apostrophe involves a double s, as in “Jesus’s disciples”. Many prefer to leave the second s out altogether, and let the apostrophe do double duty in standing for both a possessive and an omitted letter, writing “Jesus’ disciples”. Other exceptions are generally made for familiar phrases like whys and wherefores, oohs and ahs, ins and outs.
Life gets really complicated when you’re dealing with a phrase like “do’s and don’ts”. The Oxford Style Guide suggests spelling it as “dos and don’ts”, which looks odd and inconsistent -- and Lynne Truss, author of the delightful book on punctuation, Eats, Shoots & Leaves, argues for “do’s and don’t’s”. So there’s no unanimity on the do’s and don’ts of apostrophising.
A simple trick is to remember the exceptions: it’s is always “it is”, “who’s” is always “who is”, and the possessive forms are “its” and “whose”. Another is “won’t”, which is not a contraction of “will not” (then it would have to be “wi’n’t”) but of the archaic “woll not”, which means the same thing.
One clear rule of thumb could be to use apostrophes when not using them would obscure your meaning or even confuse your reader. For example, the phrase “dot your i’s and cross your t’s”. If you left out the apostrophe, it would become “dot your is and cross your ts”. Since ”is” is a different word altogether, omitting the apostrophe would require your reader to pause and
re-read the sentence to get the intended meaning. The rule of disambiguation makes it clear that if an apostrophe will avoid confusion, you should use it.
The usefulness of the apostrophe was made clear when the British novelist Kingsley Amis, challenged to produce a sentence whose meaning depended on a possessive apostrophe, came up with three versions of the same sentence:
“Those things over there are my husband’s.” (Those things over there belong to my husband.)
“Those things over there are my husbands’.” (Those things over there belong to several husbands of mine.)
“Those things over there are my husbands.” (I’m married to those men over there.)
On the other hand, when it’s not needed, don’t use it. The British speak ruefully of the “greengrocer’s apostrophe”, an error made particularly in signs on grocery stores saying “banana’s by the dozen”, “carrot’s for sale”, and so unnecessarily on. But what can one do about the retail trade when chains have inflicted such howlers on the world as “Toys ‘R’ Us” and other examples of punctuation as decoration?
Opponents of the apostrophe have pointed to the maddening inconsistency of its use in everyday life. Take just one common name found in many British cities. While Newcastle United play football at a stadium called St James’ Park, Exeter City play at St James Park (no apostrophe), and London has a St James’s Park (apostrophe plus second s), though it really is a park and not a football stadium!
Many have suggested that apostrophes ought to be abandoned altogether, as the department store Harrods has done but the grocery chain Sainsbury’s have refused to. The argument is that they are superfluous, and the meaning is evident to most people with or without it. This “apostrophe apostasy” is not new: George Bernard Shaw called them “uncouth bacilli”, and many linguists have argued that apostrophes are unnecessary. They may have begun to go
Out of fashion, as the Apostrophe Society has concluded, but let’s use them till the cry goes out: “it’s time’s up for the apostrophe!”
