Supporters at a marketing campaign rally hosted by U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Waltz on the Thomas and Mack Heart on the College of Las Vegas in Las Vegas on Aug. 10, 2024. | Photograph credit score: AP
No matter led Vice President Kamala Harris to decide on Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her operating mate, it most likely wasn’t a need to stoke arguments about apostrophes, nevertheless it does not take a lot to get grammar specialists excited.
“The decrease the stakes, the larger the battle,” mentioned Ron Woloshun, a inventive director and digital marketer in California, who joined the social media fray lower than an hour after Harris chosen Walz final week to supply his tackle possessive correct names.
The Related Press Stylebook recommends “utilizing just one apostrophe” for singular correct nouns ending in S: Dickens’ novels, the labors of Hercules, the lifetime of Jesus. However not everybody agrees.
The talk over possessive correct names ending in S started shortly after President Joe Biden cleared the best way for Harris to run. Is it Harris or Harris’s? However the alternative of Walz together with her final identify that appears like an s actually intensified it, mentioned Benjamin Dreyer, the retired editor-in-chief of Random Home and creator of Dreyer’s English: An Completely Appropriate Information to Readability and Model.
Mr. Dreyer was inundated with questions inside minutes of the announcement, which got here whereas he was on the dentist.
“I assumed, ‘OK, everybody must chill out. I will be dwelling in a short while and I can get to work at my desk,'” she mentioned.
Whereas there’s broad consensus that Walz is correct, confusion persists over Harris versus Harris. Dreyer’s verdict? Add the “s.”
“Setting the ‘s’ is far less complicated, after which you’ll be able to take your worthwhile mind cells and apply them to extra necessary issues,” he mentioned.
Woloshun had the same view of the X, the place apostrophes are thrown like hand grenades. “The rule is straightforward: should you say S, write S,” he argued.
That places them on the identical facet as The New York Instances, The Washington Publish and The Wall Road Journal — and disagrees with AP.
Whereas AP type has developed on many fronts over time, there are not any fast plans to vary steerage on possessives, mentioned Amanda Barrett, AP’s vp for information requirements and inclusion.
“It is a long-standing coverage of the AP. It has labored nicely for us and we have now not seen any actual want to vary it,” she mentioned. “We all know that the dialog is open and that individuals make totally different selections in the case of grammar, and that’s OK. Everybody makes the selection that works finest for them.”
Timothy Pulju, a senior lecturer in linguistics at Dartmouth Faculty, mentioned that till the seventeenth or 18th century, the possessive of correct names ending in S (reminiscent of Jesus or Moses) was usually merely the identify itself, with no apostrophe or further S. Over time, the apostrophe (“Jesus” or “Moses”) was added to indicate possession, although the pronunciation remained the identical.
“That turned type of an ordinary that I used to be taught and that I adhere to, though looking back, I don’t assume it’s a fantastic commonplace,” he mentioned.
That is as a result of linguists contemplate writing to be a illustration of speech, and speech has modified since then. Pulju mentioned he expects the writing kind to grow to be dominant over time. However for now, he, together with the Merriam-Webster dictionary, says both kind is appropriate.
“Every time persons are speaking efficiently, we are saying the language is doing what it’s presupposed to do,” he mentioned. “For those who can learn it any manner it’s written, then it appears to be working for folks. They’re not confused about who Tim Walz’s operating mate is.”
If she wins in November, Harris would grow to be the fourth U.S. president with a final identify ending in S and the primary since Rutherford B. Hayes, who was elected in 1876 (130 years earlier than Twitter was based) and escaped the social media frenzy of apostrophes. Harris is the primary candidate with such a sophisticated final identify since 1988, when Democrat Michael Dukakis misplaced to George H.W. Bush.
Dukakis, now 90, mentioned in a phone interview Monday (Aug. 12, 2024) that he doesn’t recall any related dialogue when he was the candidate, however agrees with the AP.
“To me it appears like an s, an apostrophe, and that’s it,” he mentioned.
In the meantime, Harris’ marketing campaign has but to take a transparent stance. A press launch issued Monday (August 12, 2024) by her New Hampshire group touted “Harris’ optimistic outlook,” a day after her nationwide press workplace wrote about “Harris’ seventh journey to Nevada.”
