On the question of whether to remove the apostrophe from written English
Should we retract the contraction?
Is it just a verbal distraction?
Or would this retraction
Become a detraction
From syntactic discourse in action?
UPDATE! -
What I'd hypothetically do in the hypothetical circumstances of the apostrophe being removed
I side with Lynne Truss's faction:
I'd never approve such redaction.
If some law were enacted,
And they were retracted,
I'd try to retract the retraction.
I would comment, but I'm suffering from a deep inverted comma.
ReplyDeleteWhen commas are deep and inverted,
ReplyDeleteSome call for them to be reverted...
No! No! Must stop limericising and get back to work!
Contractions, contractions!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations!
What did you have?
How much did it weigh?
The contractions were hard, but eventually, I bought forth a smiling baby noun. A PLURAL noun, no less. I wasn't sure what to call it - them, I should say - so I'm calling it by a collective name for the moment.
ReplyDeleteWeighs just a quarter of a sentence at the moment, but I'm hoping for it to grow up into a whole paragraph one day!
Plurals are so common these days, what with technological interventions and all. Not that I'm suggesting you're common.
ReplyDeleteThe singular requires fewer contractions though, generally weighs less, and one doesn't need to be wanton with nouns.
Of course, I'm sure your plural nouns are very handsome.