[Publib] Librarian Knowledge

[Bird, Daryl]

All right, Mr. Smarty Pants. How would you write the possessive of a
possessive name-e.g. McDonald's? Eh? Eh?

 

________________________________

From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Backwage at aol.com
Sent: Saturday, May 16, 2009 1:47 PM
To: jlashmet at cumberland.lib.nc.us; publib at webjunction.org
Subject: Re: [Publib] Librarian Knowledge

 

In a message dated 5/16/2009 1:27:07 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
jlashmet at cumberland.lib.nc.us writes:

	It just sounds strange, and not grandiose at all. When is the
possesive used in naming something, even if it belongs to the person who
owns it?

	 

True enough.  There is Dodger Stadium, Yankee Stadium; the Eiffel Tower,
and the Ferris Wheel.  You get Tiger Stadium even though the team is not
the Tiger.  The possessive disappears in English through use.  The
apostrophe disappears in the written form, too, hence Schlitz Beer,
Coors Beer, Bayer Aspirin. Even in official use things get gone:  Down
Syndrome; Wasserman Test.  Because people ask for a Schlitz, and their
doctor says they need a Wasserman--though the connection is tenuous.

 

But whenever a folly is undertaken--those historically grand designs
which may or may not come to nothing--the possessive adheres to the
person responsible.  Hence "Seward's Folly," otherwise known as Alaska.
By the way, Eiffel's Tower was once a folly, but when it had hung around
long enough to be considered a landmark, it lost the apostrophe-S, at
least in English; in French it never had one.

 

M. M. 

 

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