On 12/9/08, Jez Cunningham <jez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> OK, I'll bite - why not Fildes's? Or is that considered too awkward?
Pedantry alert. The apostrophe before the "s" represents a
contraction of "his." A couple of examples: "Ben Jonson his best
piece of poetry" means "Ben Jonson's best piece of poetry." Another:
"Pettie His Petite Palace of Pleasure" means "Pettie's Petite Palace
of Pleasure." Both are real examples in Elizabethan English, one a
line from an autobiographical poem by Ben Jonson and the other a title
of a book.
Even by Elizabethan times it was awkward to spell out "his" where the
possessive was meant and it was done mainly in more formal instances,
such as titles of books and that sort of thing. The full "his"
certainly wasn't pronounced (although there are exceptions, see below)
in common speech and so that practice in writing tended to follow real
utterance, as usual.
Usage of apostrophes, capitalization, even spelling was haphazard
until quite recently. Shakespeare spelled his own name differently as
it suited him. Newspapers had a great deal to do with the
formalization of these rules.
So -- since the uncontracted expression, however antique, would be "Mr
Fildes His Progress," you are quite within all manner of logic and
good form to write "Mr Fildes's Progress" and I think you should. If
you say aloud "Mr Fildes's Progress" or "Mr Wilcox's Progress" you can
hear the "his." But you don't hear it so much when you say "Mr
Cunningham's Progress." Clearly more examples cried out for
contraction than others, and the contraction won out in the end.
Most people could hardly care less about this stuff and feel
reasonably good about simply including the apostrophe, and I wish to
be supportive of reasonable compromise. So I say well done either
way.
Best regards,
Joel W.
--
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