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From: greg@ncr-tp.UUCP (Greg Noel)
Newsgroups: net.flame,net.misc
Subject: Re: STUPID PEOPLE'S COURT: The case of Outraged English Majors VS. The Net
Message-ID: <152@ncr-tp.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 2-Apr-85 16:59:35 EST
Article-I.D.: ncr-tp.152
Posted: Tue Apr  2 16:59:35 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 4-Apr-85 06:53:08 EST
References: <468@vax2.fluke.UUCP> <147@ncr-tp.UUCP> <7159@watdaisy.UUCP>
Reply-To: greg@ncr-tp.UUCP (Greg Noel)
Organization: NCR Corporation, Torrey Pines
Lines: 30
Xref: watmath net.flame:9097 net.misc:7767

In article <7159@watdaisy.UUCP> ndiamond@watdaisy.UUCP (Norman Diamond) writes:
>In German, the possessive form is indicated by adding an "s" without an
>apostrophe.  I am glad that English adds the apostrophe as well (except
>that it's absent from "its"); but I do not believe it originated by
>eliding the word "his".

You'll have to argue that with my tenth-grade English teacher.  Unfortunately,
that will be difficult, as she died about ten years ago.  But that's what she
taught us -- I can still remember how upset several of the women (or are they
still "girls" in tenth grade?) were that the female possesive form meant that
the possesed object was really owned by the male responsible for that female.
(Hmmmmm.....  If this is a grammar discussion, that was a terrible sentence.)

It is not present in "its" any more that it is present in "his" or "her" which
are the other pronoun possesive forms -- they are NOT elisions.

I don't know if the German is relevant -- I think that the "s" at the end
indicates the genative (sp? -- not in my dictionary) form; the fact that it
sounds the same as in English may be just chance.

>Incidentally, since this discussion concerns grammar rather than spelling,
>I won't complain about the misspelled word in the quotation.

Sigh.  For some reason, "sentance" and "writting" are both considered legal
by this spelling corrector.  I am not a good speller, and I know it, and I
compensate for it by using a spelling corrector and a dictionary.  I know
that every time I use one of those words, I \must/ look them up, but I was
rushed and didn't.  Mea culpa.
-- 
-- Greg Noel, NCR Torrey Pines       Greg@ncr-tp.UUCP or Greg@nosc.ARPA