English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

@Robusto most of the time I do.

Robusto

jasperlol

12:10 AM

💀👒💀

Dang it.

More dumberness from that one.

I understand there is a man named John Its. When he comes to pick up his car after an oil change they ask, "Its' car is ready, right?" — Michael Owen Sartin 15 mins ago

@MichaelOwenSartin No, Michael: the correct question would in that case be “Is Mister Its’s car ready yet?” I fear you’ve been duped: speech is primary. You just write down what people say, which is where real language resides — in their speech. Oh, and apostrophes are silent. — tchrist 3 mins ago

I swear, we have like the shittiest miseducation system I have ever seen when it comes to language.

haha. sounds more genius alerts

These numbskulls that think you pronounce apostrophes. I do so want to find the teachers who mistaught them that claptrap and sew their lips together forever.

my eighth grade teacher taught us that possessive people's names still have 's even if they end in s

I just assumed everyone knew that.

Perhaps it was a sin not of commission but of omission. I still place the blame at their feet.

12:14 AM

Hey, easy with the "skull" reference pal :-)

@GeorgePompidou Punctuation doesn’t matter. Speech matters.

punctuation matters.

and you are connecting the two in your response to that dumb Michael guy.

I want to know why a person who writes inconsistant cares about a bloody apostrophe.

It’s not like he’s apt to get anything right anyway.

I want to tell him that I think his comments aren't very good.

but alas, I'm going to play with my raspberry pi more. I've learned more about threading playing with this thing than I did in my C class last year.

made my piglow light scripts multithreaded

Sudude again!

No. The shell is mine! — Mechanical snail Jul 30 '12 at 8:38

12:19 AM

thanks for the comment ^.^

12:30 AM

why does xscreensaver have like 4000 perl library dependencies

12:47 AM

@tchrist I don't see anywhere that anyone has suggested that apostrophes are pronounced.

Ask Jamie.

@KitFox It’s a general trend.

Let me find it.

when people write Linus' things rather than Linus's things, they still say the s at the end.

that's my take on the uproar of apostrophes being pronounced.

@GeorgePompidou Yes, those people have been miseducated into thinking that apostrophes are pronounced.

That’s why Lawler and various of us keep repeating that they are not.

@Mark: Commas can be heard, but apostrophe's are silent. Q.E.D. Oh, and I don't wear a tie clip seriously. — John Lawler 51 mins ago

If John Its has a car, it’s John Its’s car.

If Cousin It has a car, it’s Cousin It’s car.

You keep repeating that they aren't pronounced, but I don't understand why you think other people think they are.

@KitFox I think people think they are. Different thing, kinda.

12:50 AM

I don't see evidence of "pronouncing an apostrophe" but I assume it is because I don't know what that means.

I understand there is a man named John Its. When he comes to pick up his car after an oil change they ask, "Its' car is ready, right?" — Michael Owen Sartin 54 mins ago

so, basically exactly what I said.

That’s why John said they were silent. He was replying to that.

What does that mean? Why does that mean that person thinks they are pronounced?

@GeorgePompidou That’s seven syllables too many, but yes.

12:51 AM

What does a pronounced apostrophe sound like?

It is hard to explain something you can't hear.

@KitFox People think it sounds like the plural inflection.

And it doesn't?

So gasses and gas’s are homophones.

or the possessive 's

12:52 AM

Like that tree in the forest that falls...

But they want to spell it gas’ and pronounce it as though it were gasses.

So you don't pronounce the ess at the end of George's?

of course I do

@KitFox Sure I do.

but that's because there's an s there

but if I wrote George' then there's no sound there. it's just George.

12:53 AM

But an apostrophe does sound make the /s/ or /z/ sound.

people seem to think that George' is pronounced George's

see, there is a fallen tree there

@GeorgePompidou I’ve seen that.

Oh. OK. I see what you are saying now.

it's or its

user116848

12:54 AM

@Arrowfar hi pal

So do they think it's sounds like itses?

user116848

@skullpatrol Howdy :D

What is @kitfox’ name doing on that plane?

@KitFox I don't think so. I think the issue was just after possessive forms of names that end in s

user116848

12:55 AM

@tchrist That's what I thought :D

@KitFox Well, he certainly thinks Its’ sounds like itses, I’m pretty sure.

also, he's rude to call someone just by his last name.

Mr. Its's or something, ffs.

Notice I added Mister, mister.

Oh. Well in that case you are wrong. There is an old school rule that suggests that names ending in ess should not have a following s when apostrophied.

I noticed :)

12:57 AM

@KitFox Huh?

@KitFox this is not what I learned in school. and I disagree with you.

@GeorgePompidou You are not old school.

excuse me. I went to the Latin School of Chicago.

In what class’ syllabus did you get taught that, and was it at the syllabus’ top or itseses bottom?

this is the most uppity and prestigious school in the universe.

12:57 AM

I learnt it on EL&U.

That is all just silly.

It is an old-fashioned way of writing proper noun possessives.

Kit, this is all a misunderstanding.

Androcles’ lion had a thorn in his paw, it is true.

writes Kit some possessives

But it is not an issue of how it is written, but of how it is said.

12:59 AM

KitFox makes me think of a dismembered fox that someone bought at a dusty old store from an old man

and you bring it home and built a Caterham out of it

and go racing.

People didn’t end Androcles’ the way they end seizes.