From owner-cvs-all Sat Apr 18 03:19:44 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id DAA04917 for cvs-all-outgoing; Sat, 18 Apr 1998 03:19:44 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-cvs-all@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from isbalham.ist.co.uk (isbalham.ist.co.uk [192.31.26.1]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id KAA04911; Sat, 18 Apr 1998 10:19:39 GMT (envelope-from rb@gid.co.uk) Received: from gid.co.uk (uucp@localhost) by isbalham.ist.co.uk (8.8.7/8.8.4) with UUCP id LAA13455; Sat, 18 Apr 1998 11:18:30 +0100 (BST) Received: from [194.32.164.2] by seagoon.gid.co.uk; Sat, 18 Apr 1998 11:12:32 +0100 (BST) X-Sender: rb@194.32.164.1 Message-Id: In-Reply-To: <3538336F.41C67EA6@whistle.com> References: <199804180411.MAA16043@spinner.netplex.com.au> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Sat, 18 Apr 1998 11:15:38 +0100 To: Peter Wemm From: Bob Bishop Subject: Re: cvs commit: src/sys/dev/dpt dpt_control.c src/sys/gnu/ext2fs... Cc: "Julian Elischer ,Dag-Erling C. Smxf8rgrav" , cvs-committers@FreeBSD.ORG, cvs-all@FreeBSD.ORG, cvs-sys@FreeBSD.ORG Sender: owner-cvs-all@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk At 6:00 am +0100 18/4/98, Julian Elischer wrote: >[...] >sorry to contradict you Peter but this is the trick.. > >"its" is a single word, the same as: >"his" and "her" > >as in: > >his cat, her cat, its cat > > >the other version, e.g. >"Joh's crow" or "John's VM code", >shouldn't be confused with this.. FWIW, the the trick with the apostrophe is that it indicates something has been left out. This is obvious in the case of can't <=> cannot. For "John's cat" you'd have to go back maybe 500 years to hear someone say "John his cat", but I believe that's more or less how the "'s" possessive originated. -- Bob Bishop (0118) 977 4017 international code +44 118 rb@gid.co.uk fax (0118) 989 4254 between 0800 and 1800 UK To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe cvs-all" in the body of the message