Quote:
Originally posted by Peregrinus
The debate about whether to add an apostrophe "s" to make a possessive out of a word that already ends in an "s" can get pretty heated. *I believe the original grammatical rule for modern English states that the apostrophe "s" should be added rather than just an apostrophe (so that it would be "Los Angeles's freeways" instead of "Los Angeles' freeways"); however, it has become more and more acceptable to use the simple apostrophe. *I'm not sure if style manuals have officially changed that rule or not, though. *Perhaps Kage23 can look it up in the Chicago manual. *My style manuals are all packed away in the attic and I'm not too eager to dig them out.
no problem.
Quote:
Originally posted by CMS 14
6.19 The possessive of singlar nouns is formed by the addition of an apostrophe and an s, and the possessive of plural nouns (except for a few irregular plurals) by the addition of an apostrophe only:
the horse's mouth * the puppies' tails * the children's desk
There are a few exceptions to the rule for common nouns. In one notable case, tradition and euphony dictate the use of the apostrophe only:
for appearance' (conscience', righteousness', etc.) sake
In another instance, the possessive singular of such uninflected nouns as series and species is also formed with the apostrophe only, although the more usual way to express possession with such nouns is by the prepositional phrase: of the species.
6.24 The general rule for the possessive of nouns covers most proper nouns, including most names ending in sibilants [a sibilant is an s or z sound] (but see exceptions in 6.26-27 and alternatives in 6.30):
Kansas's * Texas's * Burns's poems * General Nogues's troops * Marx's theories * Jefferson Davis's home * Berlioz's opera * Dickens's novels * Ross's land * Jones's reputation * the Rosses' and the Williamses' lands * the Joneses' reputation
6.26 Traditional exceptions to the general rule for forming the possessive are the names Jesus and Moses:
in Jesus' name * Moses' leadership
6.27 Names of more than one syllable with an unaccented ending pronounced eez form another category of exceptions. Many Greek and hellenized names fit this pattern. For reasons of euphony the possessive s is seldom added to such names:
Euripides' plays * Xerxes' army * Demosthenes' orations * R. S. Surtees' novels * Ramses' tomb * Charles Yerkes' benefactions
6.30 How to form the possessive of polysyllabic personal names ending with the sound of s or z probably occasions more dissension among writers and editors than any other orthographic matter open to disagreement. Some espouse the rule that the possessive of all such names should be formed by the addition of an apostrophe only. Such a rule would outlaw spellings like "Dylan Thomas's poetry," "Roy Harris's compositions," and "Maria Callas's performance" in favor of "Thomas'," "Harris'," and "Callas'," which would not commend themselves to many. Other writers and editors simply abandon the attempt to define in precise phonic or orthographic terms the class of polysyllabic names to which only the apostrophe should be attached and follow a more pragmatic rule. In essence this is, "If it ends with a z sound, treat it like a plural; if it ends with an s sound, treat it like a singular." Thus they would write "Dickens', Hopkins', Williams'," but also "Harris's, Thomas's, Callas's, Angus's, Willis's," and the like. The University of Chicago Press prefers the procedures outlined above (6.24-27). It is willing, however, to accept other ways of handling these situations if they are consistently followed throughout a manuscript.
whew, that's a lot of material. i think most important for the Los Angeles discussion is 6.24 and 6.30. it seems to me that the