October 27, 2006, 09:04
zmježdapostrophic hijnks in the US Supreme Court
Via
Language Log:
An article about the proper form of possessives for words which end in -
s. It is the first time I've found myself agreeing with Justice Thomas.
quote:
As one of its final acts last term, the U.S. Supreme Court issued Kansas v. Marsh, a case involving the constitutionality of a state death-penalty statute. The 5-4 decision exposed the deep divide that exists among the nation’s intellectual elite regarding one of society’s most troubling issues—namely, whether the possessive form of a singular noun ending with the letter s requires an additional s after the apostrophe.
October 27, 2006, 09:10
Richard Englishquote:
It is the first time I've found myself agreeing with Justice Thomas.
I don't know the honourable gentleman but I agree with him as well. (And shame on the "Legal Times")
October 27, 2006, 13:53
goofyI guess I'm thick... it took me a few readings, but I guess they're not serious about "one of society’s most troubling issues." Or indeed about "the epidemic currently gripping the nation—that is, the widespread misunderstanding of the objective case for pronouns".
October 27, 2006, 16:34
Seanahanquote:
Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for the Court (and joined by Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. and Justices Samuel Alito Jr., Anthony Kennedy, and Antonin Scalia), concluded that the Kansas statute was not unconstitutional. In reaching this conclusion, Thomas repeatedly referred to the relevant law as Kansas’ statute.
zmjezhd, this also probably marks the first time you've agreed with any of those other 4.
October 27, 2006, 17:56
zmježdYes, I just gave Justice Thomas the credit because he wrote the decision. Though, to be honest, I've used the same hand gesture that Justice Scalia once had used on a reporter.