TIU Fourms offline :-(

[Yorkie]

Now that's settled, how about 'stadia'?

[GodalmingYellow]

Oh good, does this mean I no longer have to remove the apostrophe when I incorrectly type &quotit's&quot.

[Kernow Yellow]

I would wager that within a hundred years or so the apostrophe to donate the possessive will have eroded out of existence,

Surely the apostrophe denotes plurals these days. As in &quotKebab's £2.50, Pizza's £3.25, Burger's £2.75&quot etc.

My eyebrow is also slightly raised at your intransitive use of the verb 'to erode'

[A-Ro]

[quote=&quotKernow Yellow]Surely the apostrophe denotes plurals these days. As in &quotKebab's £2.50, Pizza's £3.25, Burger's £2.75&quot etc.[/quote]

No No No.

[boris]

Well, I suppose it depends on whether you believe in the enlightenment project or if you are prepared to let the entropy of the herd rule ...

I would argue that fighting against the natural evolution of language is in direct opposition to the enlightenment project, which opposed the forces of conservatism that you seem to be seeking to champion. The &quotentropy of the herd&quot is the reason our language (and all other languages) is as it is. As the French have belatedly come to accept, not even truly conservative bodies like the Académie française are able to prevent the natural effects of erosion, of growth, and of borrowing from other languages. Languages change - that's their very nature, and one of the most common ways that they change is by taking words and adapting them to more usual structures, hence fora -&gt forums stadia -&gt stadiums etc. That's the whole reason why modern English doesn't have a Latin-style case system, and why most English verbs are regular.

And there's nowt you anachronistic conservatives can do about it!

[Kernow Yellow]

Surely the apostrophe denotes plurals these days. As in &quotKebab's £2.50, Pizza's £3.25, Burger's £2.75&quot etc.

No No No.

[/quote]

Maybe an ironic tone is hard to get across on an internet forum. I certainly intended it to be present.

[Ancient Colin]

... which would be fine, were the direction not an impoverishment of language, a lapse towards a cut-down MTV-English and txt spl where there is no distinction between, for example, disinterested and uninterested and both are considered too long for discourse. I am all for the evolution of language so long as it is an extension not a collapse to barbarism.

That sounds incredibly conservative, but it is more a Raymond Williams take on things, I think.

[Kernow Yellow]

And there's nowt you anachronistic conservatives can do about it!

I don't know. The more Ancient Colins there are in this world, the slower the pace of change of the language. We don't have to be swept along accepting any old neologism as correct.

Of course if there are less Ancient Colins, then their cause becomes more hopeless...

[boris]

... which would be fine, were the direction not an impoverishment of language, a lapse towards a cut-down MTV-English and txt spl where there is no distinction between, for example, disinterested and uninterested and both are considered too long for discourse. I am all for the evolution of language so long as it is an extension not a collapse to barbarism.

That sounds incredibly conservative, but it is more a Raymond Williams take on things, I think.

But I disagree that it is an impoverishment of language. Rather, it's a natural process of change, and change shouldn't be seen as necessarily bad. For example, the whole Latin case system, and the whole French and Latin verb conjugations, all arose as a result of natural changes (or, in your terms, impoverishments) to the older versions of those languages, and the pre-Romance languages. The Latin that we learned in school was itself the product of generations of evolution, and was itself never a static language. Even the pre-Latin proto Indo-European language was itself the product of generations of evolution, erosion, and growth. There is no such thing as a static language, and all languages are the result of ongoing changes to structure, vocabulary, and syntax.

[Resurrection Ox]

... which would be fine, were the direction not an impoverishment of language, a lapse towards a cut-down MTV-English and txt spl where there is no distinction between, for example, disinterested and uninterested and both are considered too long for discourse. I am all for the evolution of language so long as it is an extension not a collapse to barbarism.

That sounds incredibly conservative, but it is more a Raymond Williams take on things, I think.

Well said. Why apologise for being conservative by the way?

Who's Raymond? Robbie's dad?

[GodalmingYellow]

[insert large woden spoon and stir]

Who cares?

[extract wooden spoon and snigger]

[Pe├▒a Oxford United]

Of course if there are less Ancient Colins, then their cause becomes more hopeless...

Fewer.

[boris]

Depends - he might mean Colins who aren't quite as old.

Although I suspect it's more a case that your irony detector needs a service.

[Fat Andy]

If the grocer's apostrophe is proliferating, as Kernow's Pizza's and Kebab's suggest, then the apostrophe may not erode out of existence, but indeed augment until it's standard everywhere but utterly meaningless.

[Ancient Colin]

Of course if there are less Ancient Colins, then their cause becomes more hopeless...

Fewer.

I like to think of myself as a continuum