Re: GRAMMAR: s's vs. s'

Michael Lorrey (retroman@tpk.net)
Sun, 26 Jan 1997 11:46:11 -0500


Eliezer Yudkowsky wrote:
>
> [Interjects Lorrey:]
> > Sorry, any name naturally ending in s gets an apostrophe only when in
> > the posessive. I don't know what school of non grammer you learned at,
> > but that was something I did definitely learn.
>
> Say WHAT? Nobody is saying Descarte's. Descarte's is NEVER, EVER
> right, possessive or no possessive, although I do occasionally write
> (and backspace over) "Chalmer's".
>
> We're debating Descartes' vs. Descartes's, for the possessive of course,
> and I happen to have a reknowned grammar book ("The Elements of Style")
> in front of me, and I also happen to be right (unless the style has
> changed since whenever the book was published, which is a possibility).
> --

I guess I wasn't clear. Descartes would be Descartes' in the posessive,
rather than Descartes's as was stated in your prior post. Descarte's is
completely wrong, and I can see how you would infer that from my
previous post.

-- 
TANSTAAFL!!!

Michael Lorrey ------------------------------------------------------------ President retroman@tpk.net Northstar Technologies Agent Lorrey@ThePentagon.com Inventor of the Lorrey Drive Silo_1013@ThePentagon.com

Website: http://www.tpk.net/~retroman/ Now Featuring: Mikey's Animatronic Factory http://www.tpk.net/~retroman/animations.htm My Own Nuclear Espionage Agency (MONEA) MIKEYMAS(tm): The New Internet Holiday Transhumans of New Hampshire (>HNH) ------------------------------------------------------------ Transhumanist, Inventor, Webmaster, Ski Guide, Entrepreneur, Artist, Outdoorsman, Libertarian, Arms Exporter-see below. ------------------------------------------------------------ #!/usr/local/bin/perl-0777---export-a-crypto-system-sig-RC4-3-lines-PERL @k=unpack('C*',pack('H*',shift));for(@t=@s=0..255){$y=($k[$_%@k]+$s[$x=$_ ]+$y)%256;&S}$x=$y=0;for(unpack('C*',<>)){$x++;$y=($s[$x%=256]+$y)%256; &S;print pack(C,$_^=$s[($s[$x]+$s[$y])%256])}sub S{@s[$x,$y]=@s[$y,$x]}