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Offline Porter

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« Reply #500 on: May 04, 2009, 10:44:16 PM »
Quote
The current rules for its and it's do not make zero sense.
Explain to me the sense of why one has an apostrophe and the other does not, and why it's not the other way around.
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Offline Tante Shvester

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« Reply #501 on: May 05, 2009, 12:06:29 AM »
Well, "it's" is a contraction of "it is", and contractions get apostrophes when they contract.
Fighting thread drift with guilt, reverse psychology, and chicken soup.
Sweet! Law of Moses loopholes! -- Anneke
I love Bones.  -- Sweet Clementine
She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli and he was room-temperature Canadian beef. -- anonymous

Offline Porter

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« Reply #502 on: May 05, 2009, 12:09:12 AM »
Now explain why there's no apostrophe for the possessive form.
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Offline Tante Shvester

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« Reply #503 on: May 05, 2009, 12:14:01 AM »
None of the possessive pronouns get apostrophes, so if they let its have one, then his and her and their would get jealous.  You know how possessive they can be.

Hey, it IS a stupid excuse for a possessive pronoun.  If I could, I would have a talking to with the folk who thought that one up.
« Last Edit: May 05, 2009, 12:14:32 AM by Tante Shvester »
Fighting thread drift with guilt, reverse psychology, and chicken soup.
Sweet! Law of Moses loopholes! -- Anneke
I love Bones.  -- Sweet Clementine
She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli and he was room-temperature Canadian beef. -- anonymous

Offline Porter

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« Reply #504 on: May 05, 2009, 08:55:42 AM »
Quote

Quote
How does technology imply belligerence?

Porter, the story is called 'Ambassador.'
Here's the answer I was looking for:

Quote
Tools  exist   for  only one  reason:     to  force  the universe  into
unnatural   shapes.    They  treat   nature   as   an  enemy,   they  are  by
definition   a   rebellion   against   the   way   things   are.     In   benign
environments  technology  is   a   stunted,   laughable   thing,   it   can't
thrive in cultures gripped by belief in natural harmony.  What need
of   fusion   reactors   if   food   is   already   abundant,   the   climate
comfortable?   Why  force change upon a world which poses no
danger?
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Offline Jonathon

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« Reply #505 on: May 05, 2009, 10:39:35 AM »
Quote
Quote
The current rules for its and it's do not make zero sense.
Explain to me the sense of why one has an apostrophe and the other does not, and why it's not the other way around.
Contractions with pronouns and forms of helping verbs, including be, always have apostrophes standing in for the omitted letters—for example, he's, she's, I'm, they're, we'll, you've and so on. There aren't any exceptions to this rule, so there's nothing nonsensical about that.

Possessive forms of personal, interrogative, and relative pronouns never have apostrophes. Of course, the only ones that end in s are his and whose, and even though these historically comes from he or who plus the genitive s inflection, morphologically it's not really the same as the possessive s that we attach to other things. The question is whether it is still considered a personal pronoun and whether the s on the possessive form is the same as the one on his and whose or something else. You could make a good argument that its is just it plus the possessive 's enclitic, just like one's. So that's where it's debatable and maybe a little nonsensical (though not completely nonsensical).
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Offline Porter

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« Reply #506 on: May 05, 2009, 10:46:21 AM »
Quote
You could make a good argument that its is just it plus the possessive 's enclitic, just like one's.
That's how I view it, but with the added bonus of somebody making an annoying rule that it's not supposed to have an apostrophe so as to avoid nonexistent confusion.
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Offline Jonathon

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« Reply #507 on: May 05, 2009, 11:11:30 AM »
I'd have to agree with you there.
« Last Edit: May 05, 2009, 11:11:41 AM by Jonathon »
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Offline Ajar

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« Reply #508 on: May 06, 2009, 10:49:28 AM »
Quote
Quote

Quote
How does technology imply belligerence?

Porter, the story is called 'Ambassador.'
Here's the answer I was looking for:

Quote
Tools  exist   for  only one  reason:     to  force  the universe  into
unnatural   shapes.    They  treat   nature   as   an  enemy,   they  are  by
definition   a   rebellion   against   the   way   things   are.     In   benign
environments  technology  is   a   stunted,   laughable   thing,   it   can't
thrive in cultures gripped by belief in natural harmony.  What need
of   fusion   reactors   if   food   is   already   abundant,   the   climate
comfortable?   Why  force change upon a world which poses no
danger?
Yep.

I really like the story, so while I suppose I could have answered you in detail myself, I wanted to share the story instead. :)
twinky elsewhere || technology implies belligerence

Offline Porter

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« Reply #509 on: May 06, 2009, 10:59:53 AM »
That was a very Peter Watts story.
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Offline Ajar

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« Reply #510 on: May 06, 2009, 12:47:28 PM »
Yes. Yes it was.  :lol:  
twinky elsewhere || technology implies belligerence

Offline Porter

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« Reply #511 on: May 06, 2009, 12:50:57 PM »
Peter Watts story are much more your type of story than mine.
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Offline Ajar

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« Reply #512 on: May 07, 2009, 07:20:42 AM »
Sorry. :( I thought you liked Blindsight.
« Last Edit: May 07, 2009, 07:21:09 AM by Ajar »
twinky elsewhere || technology implies belligerence

Offline Porter

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« Reply #513 on: May 07, 2009, 07:40:52 AM »
It was interesting, but I didn't like it nearly as much as you did.
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Offline Jonathon

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« Reply #514 on: June 04, 2009, 02:39:09 PM »
This comes from a book about Latter-day Saints in Germany during World War II. It's a woman's recollection of her father coming home from a POW camp when she was four. That's as much as is explained in the text.
Quote
He was skinny, but he was pretty healthy. I didn’t know him. When he came home I was still in a crib. And he came home and my mom was so excited, and she came in—it was midnight, and he said, “Oh, look who’s home!” And I said, “Yeah, an uncle!” And my mom said, “No, it’s your dad!” And I said, “No, it’s an uncle!” And over and over my mom said, “It’s your dad!” and I said, “No, it’s an uncle!” And my dad had a salami that he had gotten somehow, and he showed me the salami, and I said, “That’s my dad!”
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Offline Porter

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« Reply #515 on: June 04, 2009, 03:00:21 PM »
o_O
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Offline Tante Shvester

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« Reply #516 on: June 04, 2009, 10:01:52 PM »
I wouldn't accept a strange man as my father for just a salami.  I'd require some rye bread, some deli mustard, a nice cole slaw on the side, and a juicy pickle.

I have standards.
Fighting thread drift with guilt, reverse psychology, and chicken soup.
Sweet! Law of Moses loopholes! -- Anneke
I love Bones.  -- Sweet Clementine
She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli and he was room-temperature Canadian beef. -- anonymous

Offline Neutros the Radioactive Dragon

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« Reply #517 on: June 05, 2009, 08:53:12 AM »
Quote
I wouldn't accept a strange man as my father for just a salami.  I'd require some rye bread, some deli mustard, a nice cole slaw on the side, and a juicy pickle.

I have standards.
 :erm:  

Offline Noemon

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« Reply #518 on: June 11, 2009, 07:57:09 PM »
From an email sent out by somebody fairly high in my work's hierarchy. Pretty close to the top, actually.

Quote
For those that have asked and for others that are still wondering, a bollard is a post or protective safety guard/barrier, i.e., Goggle will provide a plethora of information and pictures. 
I wish more people were able to be like me. 
-Porter

I'm about perfect.
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I hope you have a wonderful adventure in Taiwan. Not a swashbuckling adventure, just a prawn flavored pringles adventure.

-pooka

Offline Neutros the Radioactive Dragon

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« Reply #519 on: June 11, 2009, 08:09:50 PM »
Beer goggles will do that too.
« Last Edit: June 11, 2009, 08:10:27 PM by Neutros the Radioactive Dragon »

Offline Noemon

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« Reply #520 on: June 11, 2009, 08:14:41 PM »
The "goggle" bit was kind of funny, but it's just a typo; anybody could make it. The misuse of "i.e." was like fingernails on a chalkboard for me, though.
I wish more people were able to be like me. 
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I'm about perfect.
-pooka

I hope you have a wonderful adventure in Taiwan. Not a swashbuckling adventure, just a prawn flavored pringles adventure.

-pooka

Offline Neutros the Radioactive Dragon

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« Reply #521 on: June 11, 2009, 08:16:47 PM »
Yeah. It seems kinda extraneous. i.e. You know?

Offline Noemon

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« Reply #522 on: June 11, 2009, 08:23:22 PM »
:lol:  
I wish more people were able to be like me. 
-Porter

I'm about perfect.
-pooka

I hope you have a wonderful adventure in Taiwan. Not a swashbuckling adventure, just a prawn flavored pringles adventure.

-pooka

Offline Noemon

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« Reply #523 on: June 18, 2009, 09:06:49 PM »
I've talked before (probably in this thread) about one of my coworkers. He's constantly misusing words, creating cliche mashups, and the like. There are two of his (both of which he says all the time) that I've been meaning to post for ages. The first is "internet conductivity" (when he means "connectivity", of course), and the second is "sleep depredation" (when he means "deprivation").

Correcting him has absolutely no impact at all on future repetition of these gaffes.  
I wish more people were able to be like me. 
-Porter

I'm about perfect.
-pooka

I hope you have a wonderful adventure in Taiwan. Not a swashbuckling adventure, just a prawn flavored pringles adventure.

-pooka

Offline rivka

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« Reply #524 on: June 18, 2009, 09:09:30 PM »
My boss many times talks about us "jumping over hoops". Which at least kind of still makes sense.
"Sometimes you need a weirdo to tell you that things have gotten weird. Your normal friends, neighbors, and coworkers won’t tell you."
-Aaron Kunin