From owner-freebsd-doc Tue Dec 17 11: 6: 9 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0850F37B401; Tue, 17 Dec 2002 11:06:08 -0800 (PST) Received: from sccrmhc03.attbi.com (sccrmhc03.attbi.com [204.127.202.63]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4C25943EA9; Tue, 17 Dec 2002 11:06:07 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from swear@attbi.com) Received: from localhost.localdomain ([12.242.158.67]) by sccrmhc03.attbi.com (sccrmhc03) with ESMTP id <20021217190606003006j70me>; Tue, 17 Dec 2002 19:06:06 +0000 Received: from localhost.localdomain (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by localhost.localdomain (8.12.6/8.12.5) with ESMTP id gBHJ5Z2J071452; Tue, 17 Dec 2002 11:05:35 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from swear@attbi.com) Received: (from jojo@localhost) by localhost.localdomain (8.12.6/8.12.5/Submit) id gBHJ5UPO071447; Tue, 17 Dec 2002 11:05:30 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from swear@attbi.com) X-Authentication-Warning: localhost.localdomain: jojo set sender to swear@attbi.com using -f To: Tom Rhodes Cc: freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: Apostrophe Usage References: <20021215213600.GA6049@submonkey.net> <20021215214245.GC6049@submonkey.net> <20021216145713.5821cc6d.trhodes@FreeBSD.org> From: swear@attbi.com (Gary W. Swearingen) Date: 17 Dec 2002 11:05:29 -0800 In-Reply-To: <20021216145713.5821cc6d.trhodes@FreeBSD.org> Message-ID: Lines: 23 User-Agent: Gnus/5.0808 (Gnus v5.8.8) XEmacs/21.1 (Cuyahoga Valley) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Sender: owner-freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Tom Rhodes writes: > On 16 Dec 2002 11:47:52 -0800 > swear@attbi.com (Gary W. Swearingen) wrote: > > > I worry that you asked the question wrongly. Does the "'s" belong? > > > > I think so, but these should be OK too: > > > > Include an abstract of the book contents here. > > Include an abstract of the book content here. > > Include an abstract of the book's content here. ... > If I'm not mistaken, doesn't an apostrophe (Tom's system) apply to > ownership. Therefor, the (book's content) would be correct. Yes, that's why I said "I think so, but these should be OK *too*". It should also be correct to refer to "book contents", where "book" is used as a simple adjective. The possessive form may sound more natural to us in this case, but it's just custom. In a similar case, we might rather use the opposite form, for example, preferring "peach pit" to "peach's pit". But both forms are allowed by our grammar. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-doc" in the body of the message