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Post by Sandy on Oct 22, 2013 23:25:01 GMT
On a thread the following was posted
'It is clear from a glance that this survey was about what measures would bring more visitors of different sorts to Southport. It was obviously NOT about anything to do with local residents shopping. That's not to say locals shopping is unimportant. It's just that you cant ask about every different issue every time -no one would answer your surveys.
As for the analysis, I have a sneaking suspicion that the PhDs and postgrads involved probably know a LITTLE more than you do about such tecchie matters.'
A comment to the above statement was made as follows:- 'Wonder if those tecchie's know more about grammar than you?'
From which a comment was then made which suggested the use of the apostrophe in the word tecchie's was incorrectly used. It is accepted that the word tecchie is incorrectly spelt, but I felt the use of the apostrophe was correctly used to highlight the mistake because it was use in a rhetorical sense
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Post by Verbivore on Oct 22, 2013 23:56:34 GMT
[...] I felt the use of the apostrophe was correctly used to highlight the mistake because it was use in a rhetorical sense Sorry, Sandy, but you're barking up the wrong tree. There is absolutely no such (received) use of the apostrophe. Perhaps you're confusing apostrophe the ' mark with apostrophe the rhetorical device. In rhetoric, apostrophe is a technical term: it is the name of a figure of speech. Apostrophe is what happens when a writer (or speaker) uses words to speak directly to a person who is not actually present. It has nothing whatever to do with indicating a misspelling.
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Post by hubertus on Oct 23, 2013 7:31:53 GMT
Didn't fully understand the post, but the cant is bereft of apostrophe. Is this anything to do with the point? Then tecchie's would have a superfluous apostrophe as an ironical device.
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Post by Sue M-V on Nov 1, 2013 19:33:43 GMT
Hi Sandy,
I don't think you meant anything but ' when you used the word "apostrophe", and, as has been suggested, the word "techies" needs no apostrophe: one techie, two techies. (I'm not exactly sure I understand what you mean by "used in a rhetorical sense", though.)
As has also been suggested, "can't" needs an apostrophe, being an abbreviation of "can not", where the apostrophe shows the place where the letters are missing. (The word "cant" means something else - a kind of slang used by e.g. thieves.)
Then we could have a whole debate about whether it would be advisable to use apostrophes with "residents' shopping" and "locals' shoping", but it's probably better not to!
Sue
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Post by hubertus on Nov 1, 2013 20:10:51 GMT
Sue M-V. I thought cant meant something along the lines of: hypocritical and sanctimonious talk, typically of a moral, religious, or political nature.
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Post by Verbivore on Nov 1, 2013 20:24:50 GMT
Sue M-V. I thought cant meant something along the lines of: hypocritical and sanctimonious talk, typically of a moral, religious, or political nature. That is one of the 18 (sub-)definitions of entry #3 of 12 for cant in the OED. That tome has five headword entries for cant, noun; one for cant, adjective; and six for cant, verb. Each of those contains many sub-entries. None of those contain an apostrophe ( can't having its own, separate entry).
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Post by hubertus on Nov 1, 2013 21:25:45 GMT
Sue M-V. I thought cant meant something along the lines of: hypocritical and sanctimonious talk, typically of a moral, religious, or political nature. That is one of the 18 (sub-)definitions of entry #3 of 12 for cant in the OED. That tome has five headword entries for cant, noun; one for cant, adjective; and six for cant, verb. Each of those contains many sub-entries. None of those contain an apostrophe ( can't having its own, separate entry). Agreed there are a number of meanings. I had just never heard of the slang usage.
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Post by Sue M-V on Nov 4, 2013 22:35:17 GMT
Sue M-V. I thought cant meant something along the lines of: hypocritical and sanctimonious talk, typically of a moral, religious, or political nature. As Vv suggests, hubertus, it can mean all sorts of things, can't it? Sue
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