And much of this can be attributed to email and text messaging. But even newspaper and on-line news items have fallen victim to the failure to follow proper punctuation rules. And while we're at it, the proper use of homophones has suffered as well, such as 'to', 'two' and 'too'. And then there's the use of 'your' instead of 'you're', and I'm not sure that anyone even cares about the proper use of 'it's' versus 'its' anymore, although when you stop and think about it, that one is a problem for a lot of people, even those with a classical education, but then I'm sure that this was one of the sore points that the 'Apostrophe Protection Society' has been fighting over for years.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

I'd recommend it for anyone who is reading this reply based on this thread's title.

Andrew H.
www.mototribology.com

Quote:

And much of this can be attributed to email and text messaging.

I think it goes WAY beyond that; it's obvious when reading articles that there are no longer any human beings doing the proofreading, only computers, because things like homophones and other artifacts that humans would readily see are being routinely missed by the computers. Not to mention the fact that even venerable publications like Atlantic would publish articles with a bunch of statistics that conflit with each other. This is further coupled by the sheer fact that most people don't read much at all; I learned most of my grammar by reading novels, so I sucked at actual grammar rules, but could kill the test of standard written English on the SAT, since it was purely determining which phrase structure was correct.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg
FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies forum1529: Translation Assistance for Engineers Entire Forum list http://www.eng-tips.com/forumlist.cfm

SuperSalad, I agree 100%.

And, while it's a bit tangential from the topic at hand, for anyone interested in the English language, used or misused, I can highly recommend, 'The Mother Tongue: English & How it Got That Way', by Bill Bryson.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

Love me some Bill Bryson

I haven't read that one though. It's on my list now; thanks.

Andrew H.
www.mototribology.com

"Death of the apostrophe" ? … what's next ? the half death of the semi-colon ?

another day in paradise, or is paradise one day closer ?

Per my doctor, my colon is fine.

There was a hard working rancher named Ray.
He had a prosperous cattle ranch that was called;
"the ranch"
He had three sons.
Each son named his first born son Ray.
The family would get together at the ranch from time to time.
The rancher died and left a sum to each of his children and grandchildren.
To his first born grandsons, the Rays, he left the ranch.
The Rays decided that the ranch needed a proper name.
The final choice was the Focal Point Ranch.
The reason?
Scientifically that was where the Sun's rays meet.
Socially it was where the son's Rays meet.
and
Economically it was where the sons raise meat.

Bill
--------------------
"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter

One example on the Apostrophe Protection Society site left me confused.
"TATTOO'S"
What's wrong with that.
I sometimes wondered what Hervé Villechaize did before the gig on Fantasy Island.
I didn't realize that he had his own business.

Bill
--------------------
"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter

JAE:

That was just prior to your colonectomy, and after he drank that fifth of Johnny Walker Red Label.

Mike McCann, PE, SE (WA, HI)

This thread is a good reminder.
I think it's important to have some discipline when sending an SMS or when communicating over messaging tools.
Despite the fact that we could be in a hurry, makes sense to take the time to (re)write each word correctly.

Not only the apostrophe, accents seem to be doomed too (particularly the case with the French language).

Quote:

"TATTOO'S"
What's wrong with that.

That apostrophe is saying that a "tattoo owns something.."

Keith Cress
kcress - http://www.flaminsystems.com

Could also mean the possessive
tense for Tattoo on Fantasy Island...

Mike McCann, PE, SE (WA, HI)

I heard the ranch and sons with only two sets of word/meanings. But you've posed a third, and that makes sense as there are three words apun which to work. Thus, I'd propose an improvement with a different pun of each of the 9 words.

There was a hard working rancher named Wray.
He had a prosperous cattle ranch that was called;
"The Ranch"
He had three sons.
Each son named his first-born son Wray.
Each son sold cattle and each Wray became an active granary distributor at The Ranch.
The elder Wray died and left his sons and first born grandsons The Ranch.
They decided that The Ranch needed a proper name for their joint business ventures.
The final choice was The Focus.
The reason?
Scientifically, The Focus was where the Sun's rays meet.
Business-wise, The Focus was where the sons' Wrays mete.
and
Economically, The Focus was where the sons raise meat.

Skip,

_{Just traded in my OLD subtlety...
for a NUance!}

The use, or misuse, of an apostrophe has made it into the national news:

Trump Tweets ‘Happy President’s Day’ And Gets Dragged By Twitter Users

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-tweet-happy-p...

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

I love reading this type of thriller post. I know its kind of weird for people to understand me but I am like this. #weird

Quote (He had a prosperous cattle ranch that was called;
"The Ranch")

I'd have used a comma at the end of the top line and a period at the end of the next...

Dik

They don't teach real grammar anymore. No one really knows how to use apostrophes properly, so they just give up on using them altogether.

In addition, my philosopher-friend tells me that, starting in the drug-addled 1960s, a school of philosophical thought arose which said that inanimate objects cannot possess anything and those nouns ought never to appear in the possessive. According to this school of thought, one can't say "the pipe's flange" but should say "the flange of the pipe". Complete poppycock, of course, but some of the abhorrence of apostrophes stems from that kind of thinking.

I went to elementary school in the 60s and in SF, no less, and never heard of that nonsense; creating convoluted phrasing to avoid an artificial dilemma is pure BS

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg
FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies forum1529: Translation Assistance for Engineers Entire Forum list http://www.eng-tips.com/forumlist.cfm

Apparently it was in the universities at that point (my chum was studying philosophy in New York mid-1960s). Takes awhile to work it's way down, but it's here now. Check these out:

https://www.bestessays.com/possession_inanimate_gu...
https://www.grammar.com/possessives

Complete unadulterated crapola, of course. But such is the modern world.

By what logic have they decided that an inanimate object cannot possess an attribute? Are they mad?
Which is better -
a) The "complete unadulterated crapola" of the articles.
or
b) The articles' "complete unadulterated crapola".

It seems to me that both statements are perfectly valid and that the inanimate objects here (the articles) are, indeed, both in possession of something (complete unadulterated crapola), in plentiful, perhaps even excessive, amounts.

"I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go past." Douglas Adams

I was going to make the same argument, but using slightly different terms; "possess", along with "has", etc., are all dual meaning words, "embodying", as in "attribute, and "owning" as in something distinct and separable. For example, "tensile strength" as a opposed to "car"

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg
FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies forum1529: Translation Assistance for Engineers Entire Forum list http://www.eng-tips.com/forumlist.cfm

rb1957, no big loss. Semicolons always were half-assed anyway.

Improper homonym use might insight a riot!

My glass has a v/c ratio of 0.5

Maybe the tyranny of Murphy is the penalty for hubris. - http://xkcd.com/319/

No one should leave this world before reading Mark Twain's essay "English As She is Taught":

https://americanliterature.com/author/mark-twain/s...

If you like his comment "Wagner's music is better than it sounds", don't miss the essay.

Just seen in another forum:

Quote:

Good to see your back.

So many questions. What's so special about this member's back? Since no pictures of the back were posted, how could anyone judge how good it is? Is the back owner's face so ugly that it couldn't/shouldn't be mentioned? Merry Christmas.

"Semicolons always were half-assed anyway."

Colons are thus fully-arsed?

"I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go past." Douglas Adams

You mean "there back".

Apostrophy Indicating Possessive case:
There are apparently a lot of English as a second language users that don't see or fully appreciate the need for apostrophes indicating the possessive.