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Date:      Sat, 18 Apr 1998 11:15:38 +0100
From:      Bob Bishop <rb@gid.co.uk>
To:        Peter Wemm <peter@netplex.com.au>
Cc:        "Julian Elischer <julian@whistle.com>,Dag-Erling C. Smxf8rgrav" <des@FreeBSD.ORG>, cvs-committers@FreeBSD.ORG, cvs-all@FreeBSD.ORG, cvs-sys@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: cvs commit: src/sys/dev/dpt dpt_control.c src/sys/gnu/ext2fs...
Message-ID:  <l03020906b15e29822b1d@[194.32.164.2]>
In-Reply-To: <3538336F.41C67EA6@whistle.com>
References:  <199804180411.MAA16043@spinner.netplex.com.au>

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At 6:00 am +0100 18/4/98, Julian Elischer wrote:
>[...]
>sorry to contradict you Peter but this is the trick..
>
>"its" is a single word, the same as:
>"his" and "her"
>
>as in:
>
>his cat, her cat, its cat
>
>
>the other version,  e.g.
>"Joh's crow" or  "John's VM code",
>shouldn't be confused with this..

FWIW, the the trick with the apostrophe is that it indicates something has
been left out. This is obvious in the case of can't <=> cannot. For "John's
cat" you'd have to go back maybe 500 years to hear someone say "John his
cat", but I believe that's more or less how the "'s" possessive originated.


--
Bob Bishop              (0118) 977 4017  international code +44 118
rb@gid.co.uk        fax (0118) 989 4254  between 0800 and 1800 UK



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