The apostrophe
- Retailers such as Harrods, Selfridges and Currys have been criticised for not having apostrophes in their brand names by a campaign group which argues that they are abusing the English language. The Apostrophe Protection Society chairman and founder John Richards said: "Many corporations have started to drop the apostrophe, arguing that it looks better that way. It amounts to a deliberate corporate abuse of the English language and sets a very bad example to schoolchildren." (Retail Week, Aug. 25, 2006).
“The Apostrophe Protection Society was started in 2001 . . . with the specific aim of preserving the correct use of this currently much abused punctuation mark in all forms of text written in the English language” (http://www.apostrophe.fsnet.co.uk).
- “The apostrophe must be the most misunderstood and misused piece of punctuation in the language. This is made worse by the fact that most people simply fail to understand what it does, and make it unnecessarily complicated. The result is that many people, in an effort to appear correct, use a scattergun approach, dropping in apostrophes every time the letter "s" ends a word, for plurals, possessives and contractions alike” (http://www.dreaded-apostrophe.com).
- “Apostrophes used incorrectly to form plurals are known as Greengrocers' apostrophes [or sometimes, humorously, as Greengrocers apostrophe's], due to their frequent occurrence on greengrocers' hand-written signs, offering potatoe's, cabbage's, etc.” (www.reference.com).
- “Llinguist Kate Burridge says punctuation could do with being cut down and the rules of language reviewed. . . . The possessive apostrophe . . . is often surplus to requirements, according to Burridge. When she suggested on Australian radio that the possessive apostrophe be dropped, she received a barrage of criticism. "I could not have predicted the outcry," she says. "Public flogging would have been too light a punishment. That was the first time I realised people were so passionate about it. . . . Rules are important, but they are not all good," she says. "People can get too worried about these things. The letters I got when I suggested dropping the possessive apostrophe were quite hostile." BBC News, June 21, 2005 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4102728.stm).