Apostrophe to Punctuation
I was intrigued by this headline in a well-respected, big city paper. “Parents’ Object to School Board.” What object, I wondered, did parents send to the school board? A petition for less homework? A number 2 pencil symbolizing their frustration with the testing mania? A dead fish wrapped in newspaper a la mob style signal? Reading the article did not provide an explanation of the object. Finally, I realized it was a misuse of apostrophes that caused the confusion on my part. “Object” was not a noun, but a verb. The misused apostrophe was the culprit. There was no object belonging to parents. Figuring that out was five minutes of my life I will not get back.
I don’t get it. I taught for almost four decades, and I understand why my students made punctuation mistakes. That was why they were in school—to learn. But what is the excuse for newspaper editors and television news? Don’t the editors get paid to edit? The apostrophe is only used in English for two situations—-to show possession or to signify a contraction (missing letters). English majors know that “apostrophe” as a word –not as a symbol of punctuation can be a figure of speech in which a poet addresses an absent person or abstract idea, such as Lord Byron’s “Apostrophe to the Ocean.” [see title of this blog] There is a third use, but more on that later. When using a pronoun, an apostrophe is never used for possession: my, your, their, ITS (most often confused). An apostrophe and a pronoun is always a contraction: I’m (I am), You’re (you are), We’re (we are), IT’S (it is).
Here are some examples of the incorrect use of the apostrophe (or lack of) in signs: NO DOG’S ALLOWED, CHILDRENS’ GARDEN, PERFECTION HAS IT’S PRICE, KIDS KIOSK, ST. PAULS SQUARE, PARKING: RESIDENTS AND VISITOR’S ONLY.
One of my linguist professors in grad school predicted the demise of the apostrophe. “In forty years, the apostrophe will disappear from usage. People will simply get the appropriate meaning from context.” He was a terrific teacher, but not so good a prognosticator (or perhaps his prediction needed more time to come true). He would have a big argument from the “The Apostrophe Protection Society.” http://www.apostrophe.org.uk/page8.html It warms my heart to know that there are groups of people dedicated to preserving the correct use of a symbol of punctuation. I discovered websites devoted to exposing apostrophe misusers. On this one http://www.apostrophecatastrophes.com/ the following errors are highlighted: CUBAN CIGAR’S, PRINCESS TIARA’S FOR ONLY $4.50, LETS GO CELTICS.
The misuse of apostrophes seems omnipresent. On a blackboard: DEAR PARENT’S DON’T FORGET THE COOKIES. Inscription on a cake: THERE’S IS NO PLACE LIKE HOME. Sign on a fast food store: DEEP FRIED OREO’S. http://mashable.com/2012/09/24/misuses-punctuation/#c3E1I5I8oGqH
Not that the misuse of an apostrophe is a crime against humanity. Unless the confusion from the misuse alters an order which ends up as a crime against humanity. As a co-editor of my college paper, I was raked over the coals if I let slip a grammatical error. I wonder if the editors of papers and television news suffer embarrassment from a faux pas. “Gee, Harold, why the apostrophe in ‘Parents’ object’?” [Did I put the question mark in the right place in the last sentence? Probably not.]
I referred to a third use of apostrophes aside from showing possession and contraction. An apostrophe appears in names, and this seems to be occurring more often. “Thomas Re’nard,” “Ap’ril Olsen,” “Jona’than James.” Apostrophes in names is nothing new—think French and Italian and Irish and Native American. “Le’clerc,” “De’Angelo,” “O’Malley,” and the famous “Mrs. O’Leary’s cow.”
Some theorists speculate that using apostrophes in names is a result of not having diacritical marks on the keyboard (like the umlaut—-hello Elizabeth Rohm from Law and Order) In other languages, the apostrophe has other uses. As in:
“Use in transliteration
In transliterated foreign words, an apostrophe may be used to separate letters or syllables that otherwise would likely be interpreted incorrectly. For example:
- in theArabic word mus’haf, a transliteration of مصحف, the syllables are as in mus·haf, not mu·shaf
- in the Japanese nameShin’ichi, the apostrophe shows that the pronunciation is shi·n·i·chi (hiragana しんいち), where the letters n (ん) and i (い) are separate morae, rather than shi·ni·chi (しにち).
- in the ChinesePinyin romanization, when two hanzi are combined to form one word, if the resulting Pinyin representation can be misinterpreted they should be separated by an apostrophe. For example, 先 (xiān) 西安 (xī’ān).
Furthermore, an apostrophe may be used to indicate a glottal stop in transliterations. For example:
- in the Arabic wordQur’an, a common transliteration of (part of) القرآن al-qur’ān, the apostrophe corresponds to the diacritic Maddah over the ‘alif, one of the letters in the Arabic alphabet
Rather than ʿ the apostrophe is sometimes used to indicate a voiced pharyngeal fricative as it sounds and looks like the glottal stop to most English speakers. For example:
- in the Arabic word Ka’aba for الكعبة al-kaʿbah, the apostrophe corresponds to the Arabic letter ʿayn.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostrophe
Did you follow all those explanations? Really? Fricative that! And we have difficulty remembering the two correct uses of apostrophes in English!
I understand the current trend to de-Anglicize names, and I wish I had thought of it. I could have distinguished my own children by inserting some apostrophes. “Mere’dith” comes to mind. But, as it fortunately turned out, all my children distinguished themselves by their deeds….without my help naming them in distinctive ways. Besides, having to live up to an apostrophe in one’s name might put too much pressure on the kid.
I wonder if the use of apostrophes in names will spread to other forms of punctuation. Consider the exclamation point. Ralph! Maltese sort of grabs one’s attention. Imagine a future populated with George Washing!tons, Abraham Lin!colns, Fred!erick Douglass’(for those government officials who don’t know who the social reformer Frederick Douglass is, it would be worth your while reading his book Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, but I would not spend time trying to find his email address). And why limit our futuristic scenario to just the apostrophe and exclamation point? A common name in the 24th century might be John Smi)th, or Tom Jo*nes, or Ronald Mc;Donald. Punctuation combinations could evolve in names. James Feni%$)more Coo*!per, Alec Bald&^$win, Amy A)($dams, Donald Tr#$@&%*!ump.
This I believe to be true: Language is an organic entity. It evolves depending on its usage. Perhaps my professor was correct in predicting the disappearance of the apostrophe, but that is sad. Punctuation spices up language and clarifies meaning—as long it is used correctly….ay, there’s-theirs the rub.