<p>This yet another installment in my saga of grammar-related threads.</p>
<p>It's quite obvious that apostrophes are...well, changing. The media has not really begun to reflect this yet, but almost everyone makes apostrophe mistakes at least periodically. Language does change to fit the needs of the people who use it. One example of this is the difference between the American set and the British set of spellings.</p>
<p>So do you think the roles of apostrophes will change? Will they be used to mark plurality instead of possession? Will they not be used at all?</p>
<p>i seriously cringe every time i see someone try to pluralize things with an apostrophe. since when does apostrophe + s = pluralization?! every time i walk my dog i see a mailbox that says “the macbeth’s” on it. the macbeth is what, may i ask? hmm? or perhaps the mailbox belongs to someone named the macbeth. anyway, i’m done ranting now.</p>
<p>Uh, well, the mailbox that says “The Macbeth’s” on it is probably referring to the fact that it’s on a mailbox owned by the Macbeths. If you don’t like that explanation, then look at it as though it were a marker for the house the Macbeths own.</p>
<p>I don’t really think the exclamation point is that abused. In the internet’s earlier days, it was definitely overused. But I think people have now started to realize how silly it is to end everything with an exclamation point. At least I don’t notice it much on CC.</p>
<p>Just to clarify, I’m trying not to be a grammar curmudgeon. I guess I don’t really care how the apostrophe is used, as long as it’s consistent.</p>
<p>What I find amusing is when people use it to pluralize some words and not others. A prime example is the “Will we be indentured servant’s or slaves” thread.</p>
<p>Using apostrophes like this creates ambiguity and doesn’t add any information. The expanded definition of “like” and the use of “they” as a genderless singular pronoun are more likely to become accepted.</p>
<p>What makes commas tricky is that there are many different nuanced rules that govern them, and there are varying schools of thought on how to use them. Rules for things such as appositives become ambiguous when one has to decide if the added phrase is an appositive or not. I definitely support relaxing comma rules a bit.</p>
<p>I get annoyed when apostrophe’s (haha… get it?) are misused, but I think this idea that English is governed by these strict rules that must be followed (like commas) is pretty ridiculous. Harping on people because they use two exclamation marks or improper quotations is a waste of time. Language, almost by definition, is dynamic. Whether it is written or vocal language is how people communicate, and that communication changes with time; the only time the language doesn’t change is when it dies (i.e. Latin).</p>
<p>Summary: annoyed by misused apostrophes, but people need to stop being grammar Nazis.</p>
<p>First, that exclamation mark was not “abused.” I was like, yes, u§ername actually notices one of the most common mistakes!</p>
<p>I do not like when people do two exclamation points, however. I really hate when my school does it.</p>
<p>I see the comma abused so much. I even abuse the comma a lot. However I never see the exclamation mark abused. If someone wants an exclamation mark, they can put an exclamation mark. What the writer is saying may not be “high volume” to one person, but to the writer it is.</p>
<p>And about the Macbeth’s… that’s proper, right? I’ve actually wondered about that, and I’ve always put things with the 's.</p>
<p>Time for a Seinfeld ref.
This reminded me of that episode when Elaine’s boyfriend was writing a book and used an exclamation point at the end of every sentence. “He took off his hat!”. </p>
<p>Basically, all people need to remember for apostrophes is that they show possession or indicate contractions (including abbreviations such as good ol’). It is never used to make anything plural. Ever. Even the 1980s.</p>
<p>But I still agree that language is only what people make of it, and it should change.</p>