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#1
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St Johns Wood or St John's Wood?
John Rowland wrote: John B wrote: wrote: BARONS COURT / Barons Court (not so much an anomaly as simply both being wrong, with the absence of an apostrophe) PARSONS GREEN / Parsons Green (ditto) "To court" is a verb, and barons is a legitimate plural...having "green" as a verb would be pushing it a bit, though. You can write "persons unknown" or "malice aforethought", so why not "parsons green"? Because the green is that of the parson, i.e. it belongs (or historically did) belong to the parson whose church is on its Western side, hence a possessive noun, requiring an apostrophe. "Persons unknown" is not a possessive noun, i.e. the "unknown" is not the property of the "persons", The word "unknown" in this context is an adjective, simply describing the type of persons, i.e. "unknown persons". I'm not sure what maliceaforethought (apart from being a rather ugly combination and probably gramatically wrong, but accepted through common usage) has to do with it! Marc. |
#3
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St Johns Wood or St John's Wood?
Larry Lard wrote: wrote: John Rowland wrote: John B wrote: wrote: BARONS COURT / Barons Court (not so much an anomaly as simply both being wrong, with the absence of an apostrophe) PARSONS GREEN / Parsons Green (ditto) "To court" is a verb, and barons is a legitimate plural...having "green" as a verb would be pushing it a bit, though. You can write "persons unknown" or "malice aforethought", so why not "parsons green"? Because the green is that of the parson, i.e. it belongs (or historically did) belong to the parson whose church is on its Western side, hence a possessive noun, requiring an apostrophe. Methinks Mr Rowland might be aware of that. "Persons unknown" is not a possessive noun, i.e. the "unknown" is not the property of the "persons", The word "unknown" in this context is an adjective, simply describing the type of persons, i.e. "unknown persons". Indeed it is less than a month since AWAD (www.wordsmith.org) had 'postpositive adjectives' as its weekly theme, giving us: manque, redux, redivivus, emeritus, and regnant. I'm not sure what maliceaforethought (apart from being a rather ugly combination and probably gramatically wrong, but accepted through common usage) has to do with it! It's two words - malice aforethought - another postpositive adjectival use. Poetically one can put any adjective one pleases postpositively, eg "It came upon a midnight clear" -- Larry Lard Replies to group please Sorry, Larry it was a mistake on my part to make malice aforethought into one word! As a lawyer, I put forward the excuse that I have only ever seen the word aforthought preceded by the word malice, and had subconsciously conjoined them into one word! Here's another thread, then, for the literary-minded members of this forum: what other words have you ever seen preceding the word aforethought? Love aforethought? Wonder aforethought? Spite aforethought? Awe aforethought? Answers please..... Marc. |
#4
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St Johns Wood or St John's Wood?
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