Our apologies to the good folk at our favourite DIY shop in Brigg for a small error on our part. After posting a story on Saturday we nipped out for a few pints and noticed that the nameboard on the front of the shop says BRIANS and not BRIAN'S DIY.
The same issue arises in street signs such as Kings Avenue. Should there be an apostrophe included or not? Wasn't it to honour Dr King? Sorry Dr. King (note the addition of the full stop to denote the abbreviation of his title).
There's a growing school of thought that the apostrophe is disappearing from our language. Perhaps fuelled by the growing use of search engines on the internet.
Those among us who were schooled at Brigg Grammar spent many hours practising (with an 'S' not a 'C') punctuating very elaborate sentences under the watchful eye of renowned English master Mike Walker, to whom we owe a real debt of thanks.
Many's the time during a long journalistic career we've penned properly punctuated sentences including the semi-colon, only to see this now very rare form edited out of the final published version. Yet it can be vital in assisting the reader to make sense of long lists of results, for example.
What we need is a member of the Briggensians' Association to set up as a plumbers' and builders' merchant in Brigg and then see whether the possessive apostrophes appear on the signs!
Returning to the question of street names, Brigg Urban District Council was clever when it honoured Brigg worthy, Alderman Joshua Davy. By choosing Davy Crescent there was no issue with the apostrophe.
Glanford Borough Council did the same with Magrath Court - in honour of Joseph J. Magrath, former clerk to Brigg UDC and Brigg Town Council.
Moving forward to North Lincolnshire Council's tenure, we have Foxton Way - honouring Dr John, renowned GP of this parish.
If Fisher ever gets the same treatment - in recognition of our late dad, the long-serving Coun Ken - we trust there will be an apostrophe included, if one is required.
The colon, by the way, seems to be enjoying a new lease of life in headlines on the web, as it helps to get the most searchable words in place as early as possible. This means that what appears online is more likely to be picked up by the crawling mechanisms employed within search engines. There's an example on this posting.
Here endeth the very pedantic lesson!
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1 comment:
.....one of the major reasons why the full-stop following an abbreviated word, i.e. (or, ie) lost usage favour related to the notion that typists' (in the '50's & '60's) dexterity flowed comparatively better without the use of 'full'stops' following the then accepted form of putting such at the end of abbreviated words - Dr. - B.A. - R.S.P.C.A. etc..
It was also found that typists' productivity increased and mistakes decreased accordingly.
It now seems accepted practice that abbreviated words are written without the use of full-stops.
The apostrophe is a very important punctuation mark - a missing, or the inappropriate use of an apostrophe can affect the inference of a clause, or a sentence.
The major misuse of an apostrophe is the lack. or poor understanding of its proper usage.
It is employed to demonstrate ownership and whether it relates to an individual, or collective ownership is shown either as ..'S, or ...S' - ie, The boy's (one boy owns something) or, The boys' (2 or more boys own something).
The other use of the apostrophe is when it shows a missing letter in an abbreviated, compound word - ie it's = it is, they're = they are.
However, one little and often confusing use of an apostrophe has religious connection.
For example, if someone's name ends with an 's', then 's is added to the end of the name when referring to ownership - ie, James's garden spade.
BUT it was decided at some point that, when specifically mentioning the major guy's in the Bible - ie, James, Jesus - then the additional 's' is unnecessary - and therefore can be written just with the apostrophe, ie St James' Road; Jesus' home......but mere mortals called James still need to use both the apostrophe and S = James's.
Brigg has St John's Church, but before that, it had a St James' Chapel in the Market Place.
NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL PEDANTIC, NIGE....not your informative comments...
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