From a Washington Post article, a quote from Stephen Hawking: "Once humans develop artificial intelligence, it will take off on it's own..." Will artificial intelligence ever be smart enough to know when to use an apostrophe?

Since thousands or millions of humans are unsure when or where to use an apostrophe I doubt it.

Speaking of the apostrophe, John Richards, the 'founder' of the Apostrophe Protection Society, which has on occasion been mentioned here, appears in a calendar featuring Britain's most boring men. Here's the Guardian's article.

I am so happy to know of this; it's calendar-ordering time for my men. A treasure!

My father-in-law was a printer/ad-layout man for various metro-NY newspapers. We display his traditional retirement 'plaque' from colleagues at Long Island Newsday, a mock-up bio article with large photo. In honor of his droll sense of humor its headline pronounces, "I've Had a Dull Life".

This message has been edited. Last edited by: bethree5,

I am definitely buying it! So funny.

I wonder why the use of apostrophes is so hard to understand.

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh:


I wonder why the use of apostrophes is so hard to understand.

I wonder why this is a declarative, not an interrogative sentence. After all these years it just now struck me that we can use the same sentence either way.

Geoff the dense

Er, I wish I could blame it on spell-correct, but I just had to edit my entry above ("it's" to "its headline"!

Geoff, I guess if I were to use a question mark, I'd delete the "I wonder" and just use "Why." Perhaps, then, it's a matter of style?

Correct use of the apostrophe can hardly be compared with passing the Turing Test as a herald of the arrival of artificial intelligence. To get the apostrophe right, humans have merely to pay attention during a couple of crucial days in elementary school. Computers can easily be programmed to get it right (which is not the same as understandingit. Please don't load the poor ol' apostrophe with unnecessary baggage. It has enough trouble already!

Great to see you back, Duncan!

As I said before, the use of the apostrophe seems so simple to me; I don't understand its misuse. Of course, everyone can have a momentary lapse. Indeed, as I was typing this I almost put an apostrophe in its. That would have been embarrassing.