The Lemon Fool

Anyone else hear yesterday's item on t'wireless? There's a splendid fellow in Bristol who has for years pursued a one-man guerilla campaign to correct illiteracy on signs around his town. Removing bogus apostrophe's, and inserting them where theres a painful omission.

Wish I'd had his courage when I lived six years in a flat, and winced at the "Beech Villa's" sign every time I passed the front door.

I think I agree with most of what he's doing.

But isn't there an argument that, say, "Butcher's" is correct on a shop front, being shorthand for "Butcher's shop"?

Scott.

UncleEbenezer wrote:Removing bogus apostrophe's, and inserting them where theres a painful omission.

I think that sentence should have had a appended to it

--kiloran

kiloran wrote:I think that sentence should have had a appended to it

And that one should have had a '.' appended to it.

Scott.

swill453 wrote:

kiloran wrote:I think that sentence should have had a appended to it

And that one should have had a '.' appended to it.

Scott.

Hmmmm, let's see.....
I think that sentence should have had a appended to it'.'

Looks a bit silly in my view. Maybe better without the quote marks.

--kiloran (trying to be too smart by far)

kiloran wrote:Hmmmm, let's see.....

Kindly explain the use of your five ..... in context.

Are they a form of ellipsis or something else entirely?

PinkDalek wrote:Kindly explain the use of your five ..... in context.

I can only see one of those.

Scott.

Pedant.

Whoops, wrong board.

PD

"Should`ve" is elided ,not apostrophised.

marronier wrote:"Should`ve" is elided ,not apostrophised.

Call it what you like, but the back tick that you've used is just as wrong, if not wronger, than the single quote more commonly used.

Scott.

UncleEbenezer wrote:Anyone else hear yesterday's item on t'wireless?

Ok, please be kind to me, I'm dyslexic and have problems with grammer. Some have threatened me about my use of the apostrophy.

However isn't it used when phrases have been reduced (i.e. is it not, as I just wrote)? So is not t'wireless the same as "the wireless" just as verbaly Tinternet is "the internet". Do we replace verbal abreviations with the full phrase or do we reflect the way it was said?

But isn't there an argument that, say, "Butcher's" is correct on a shop front, being shorthand for "Butcher's shop"?

I imagine it's going to take him a while to get round all the branches of Boots the Chemist, then. Founded in 1849 by John Boot.

And what are we to do with Walkers Crisps? Are they crisps made by Mr Walker, or for Mr Walker, or exclusively for one walker (early apostrophe) or plural walkers (late apostrophe), or what? And do they really deserve the same apostrophisation as Mr Kipling's cakes, given that the barmy old fool doesn't even exist?

It's going to be a long day.

BJ

bungeejumper wrote:It's going to be a long day.

You could always relax with a Quiz.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/article ... rophe-quiz

Walked past a sign on the way home,"come in and try local craft beers and gin's"...

UncleEbenezer wrote:Anyone else hear yesterday's item on t'wireless?

There's a splendid fellow in Bristol who has for years pursued a one-man guerilla campaign to correct illiteracy on signs around his town. Removing bogus apostrophe's, and inserting them where theres a painful omission.

Wish I'd had his courage when I lived six years in a flat, and winced at the "Beech Villa's" sign every time I passed the front door.

When you say -

apostrophe's

Do you really mean -

apostrophes

???

Itsallaguess

Itsallaguess wrote:

UncleEbenezer wrote:Anyone else hear yesterday's item on t'wireless?

There's a splendid fellow in Bristol who has for years pursued a one-man guerilla campaign to correct illiteracy on signs around his town. Removing bogus apostrophe's, and inserting them where theres a painful omission.

Wish I'd had his courage when I lived six years in a flat, and winced at the "Beech Villa's" sign every time I passed the front door.

When you say -

apostrophe's

Do you really mean -

apostrophes

???

Itsallaguess

You might want to note kiloran's post above Then stand in the dunces' corner for noticing that but missing the other half of that sentence.

UncleEbenezer wrote:

Itsallaguess wrote:

UncleEbenezer wrote:Anyone else hear yesterday's item on t'wireless?

There's a splendid fellow in Bristol who has for years pursued a one-man guerilla campaign to correct illiteracy on signs around his town. Removing bogus apostrophe's, and inserting them where theres a painful omission.

Wish I'd had his courage when I lived six years in a flat, and winced at the "Beech Villa's" sign every time I passed the front door.

When you say -

apostrophe's

Do you really mean -

apostrophes

???

Itsallaguess

You might want to note kiloran's post above Then stand in the dunce's corner for noticing that but missing the other half of that sentence.

Well, yes, I've obviously seen it now, of course....



Itsallaguess

Itsallaguess wrote:Well, yes, I've obviously seen it now, of course....
Itsallaguess

Are you by any chance still overheated?

Here it's cooled down nicely in the last couple of hours. Very comfy now[1].

[1] For posterity, much of Blighty has had quite a heatwave over the past several days.

Our village recently gained an excellent Barber's shop. And the signwriter included an apostrophe.
It reads GENTLEMENS'S BARBER

scotia wrote:Our village recently gained an excellent Barber's shop. And the signwriter included an apostrophe.
It reads GENTLEMENS'S BARBER

Ah, gentle Menzies. Such a nice old chap. Do give him my regards.

BJ