Just A Minute

----- Original Message -----

From: bobbyshaddoe3004

To: just-a-minute@...

Sent: Wednesday, February 21, 2007 3:20 PM

Subject: [just-a-minute] Singulars, Plurals, and Apostrophes?

This is an issue that tends to get up my nose. I mean I agree that
if something is in the singular then its done in the plural it can't
be counted as repetition, at least nowadays that seems to be the
case, but in the past that rule was rather loosely applied, depending
of course on whether Nicholas actually heard the plural being
applied.

but what I really wanna talk about is with regards to the application
of Apostrophes and 's' on words as to whether that's still repetition
even if someone says the singular form, then says the word again with
an apostrophe 's on it? I only wonder about this because of what
Nicholas has constantly said ad nauseam about they exist in the realm
of 'sound radio' (like there's another kind) and more often than not
has established that it's what you hear and not what is written and
yet fairly recently that application has been thrown completely out
the window in favor of this apostrophe 's' thing.

For example, if the subject is say 'Cat's Whiskers' and someone
says 'cat' more than once, that's repetition. But in that occasion,
Nicholas said that 'cat' was on the card even though it had an
apostrophe with the 's' on it.

the same thing applied to 'Pandora's Box', I think it was last year,
Ross challenged Tim Rice on that same ordeal, the fact that he
repeated Pandora, even though its Pandora's on the card, and Nicholas
again didn't let him have it because of the apostrophe. I mean I
find the issue completely nonsensical and illogical, especially in
light of the fact that Nicholas firmly establishes that it's what you
hear, not what's written.

There was also an occasion back in 78 or 79, when the Gang of Four
were together, I think the subject was 'Parbuckles' or something.
Clement was speaking saying I believe, 'In a ship's chandler shop',
Derek buzzes for repetition of ships, even though Clement hadn't said
even said ships before, and this incredible argument erupts when
Clement justifies by saying that he said 'ship apostrophe s chandler'
and Nicholas allowed it.

There was also another occasion I think during the 1999 TV season, I
forget who the panelists were, I think it was Barry Cryer, Wendy
Richard, Linda Smith, and Steve Frost I think. The subject I think
was 'Cardigans' and Wendy was talking about her character Pauline
Fowler from 'Eastenders' and she said Pauline, then Pauline's, and
this very weird and nonsensical explanation from Nicholas occurs
again regarding singular, plurals and words with an apostrophe 's' on
it, that it was still the singular form even with the apostrophe 's',
which made no sense whatsoever. I mean granted it was on television,
so obviously I could forgive something like that, but not when its
applied to the radio though.

after all, you can't hear an apostrophe, so I think that if something
like that occurs again, it shouldn't be applied, after all if this is
really 'sound radio' then if you hear two plurals of something, it
doesn't matter if its apostrophe 's' or not, unless of course you say
the word then 'apostrophe s' or whatever.

what do you guys think?