Of apostrophe abuse, and the results
Aug. 14th, 2006 07:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
olorielFor some reason or other, I've always had a, shall we say, less than happy relationship to the Lauras Stern ("Laura's Star") series. I know that I'm being childish and silly - firstly, I don't even know much of the series; secondly, it's for children and does, actually, look cute; thirdly, it doesn't harm anyone. I only know that it's hyped - insanely much, considering that it's just a stupid and, from what I've gathered, rather simple little tale; that the trailer for the movie version was shown in front of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which, if you ask me, addresses a completely different age and target group; that said trailer was way too long, considering it only consisted of a cheesy scene from the movie with cheesy music and a few "oooh?"s, "aaaah!"s and "hmmm."s (honestly, I thought the Teletubbies were bad enough!); and that my town is currently plastered with posters for a play about the same stories. They say, in big "friendly" letters (Comic Sans - another private enemy!), "Laura's Stern".
Now this is something that'll never stop to annoy me. I know it's silly, but I can't help it.
You don't, you just don't, use an apostrophe with the German genitive. You don't. (Edit: Or you shouldn't, anyway!) Not unless the name you wish to create the genitive of ends in s, ß or z. In that case, the apostrophe is used rather than adding yet another s. It's "Günter Grass' Geständnis" (whee, alliteration!), "Thomas' Buch", "Maedhros' Hand"* and so on. (Some accents use "-ens" or "-es" instead of the apostrophe, or pronounce the apostrophe as "-ens" or "-es", anyway, but that's not relevant now.) But if the word doesn't end in s or a related sound, there's no need for an apostrophe. It's "Daniels Buch", "Thrawns Hand"*, and "Lauras Stern". We know that we're not talking about multiple people named Daniel that have something to do with one book because it just wouldn't work grammatically, or a Greek Jew whose first name is Lauras, because there's a little girl on the poster, not a boy. (Of course, I am now tempted to bring a - male - character named Lauras Stern into my next NaNovel...)
Basically, we leave the all-time use of the apostrophe to the English. ;) People have been confusing this for a long, long time, and I really, really don't know why they have to do this. It pissed me off in primary school already. (Yes, I was madly obsessed with language even then. And a book purist. I'm sorry. I started early. Which is probably why I'm so good at pointlessly bitching about things like this - decades of experience...)
And now it says "Laura's" on all those posters that all the cute little children see. And all those cute little children will think that this is how it's done correctly, and go ahead writing "Daniel's Buch" and "Sophie's Welt" and "Michelangelo's Bilder" and "Harry Potter's Zauberstab" and whatever. Adults are doing it wrong, so who can blame the kids really. I don't blame them, I blame the people who're doing it wrong even though they should know better. This has been completely untouched by the orthography reforms, even! Apostrophes are wonderful, but only if used correctly. The same, by the way, goes for commas. Having to read texts full of mis-placed commas makes me cringe. This happens often with English texts written by Germans, because they mistakenly use the German rules for commas in English. WRONG. German needs way more commas than English. (If any native speakers of English ever wondered why Germans like to litter English texts with random superfluous commas, that's why.) It's "I just wanted to tell you that I love you", not "I just wanted to tell you, that I love you", even though it's "Ich wollte dir nur sagen, dass ich dich liebe" in German. AUGH. - But I digress.
So as you can see, those little posters inviting me to watch "Laura's Stern" are annoying me. And as I've never liked the series much, I now have a sinister sort of cross-over plot-bunny in my head. See, Lauras Stern is basically about this little girl (nobody will be surprised to hear that her name is Laura) seeing a shiny falling from the sky. She finds it, sees that it's a star, and takes it home. I don't know what happens afterwards, really. What should happen is that cutesy little Laura's home is burned down by seven tall pissed-off pointy-eared people in search of the shiny. They steal the star and take off with it. Rocks fall, everybody dies. (I'd even forgive them for the stray apostrophe if it ended like that.)
I do apologize for thisnot so random outburst of violence.
*Yes, I can bring my fandoms into any topic. But you knew that.
Now this is something that'll never stop to annoy me. I know it's silly, but I can't help it.
You don't, you just don't, use an apostrophe with the German genitive. You don't. (Edit: Or you shouldn't, anyway!) Not unless the name you wish to create the genitive of ends in s, ß or z. In that case, the apostrophe is used rather than adding yet another s. It's "Günter Grass' Geständnis" (whee, alliteration!), "Thomas' Buch", "Maedhros' Hand"* and so on. (Some accents use "-ens" or "-es" instead of the apostrophe, or pronounce the apostrophe as "-ens" or "-es", anyway, but that's not relevant now.) But if the word doesn't end in s or a related sound, there's no need for an apostrophe. It's "Daniels Buch", "Thrawns Hand"*, and "Lauras Stern". We know that we're not talking about multiple people named Daniel that have something to do with one book because it just wouldn't work grammatically, or a Greek Jew whose first name is Lauras, because there's a little girl on the poster, not a boy. (Of course, I am now tempted to bring a - male - character named Lauras Stern into my next NaNovel...)
Basically, we leave the all-time use of the apostrophe to the English. ;) People have been confusing this for a long, long time, and I really, really don't know why they have to do this. It pissed me off in primary school already. (Yes, I was madly obsessed with language even then. And a book purist. I'm sorry. I started early. Which is probably why I'm so good at pointlessly bitching about things like this - decades of experience...)
And now it says "Laura's" on all those posters that all the cute little children see. And all those cute little children will think that this is how it's done correctly, and go ahead writing "Daniel's Buch" and "Sophie's Welt" and "Michelangelo's Bilder" and "Harry Potter's Zauberstab" and whatever. Adults are doing it wrong, so who can blame the kids really. I don't blame them, I blame the people who're doing it wrong even though they should know better. This has been completely untouched by the orthography reforms, even! Apostrophes are wonderful, but only if used correctly. The same, by the way, goes for commas. Having to read texts full of mis-placed commas makes me cringe. This happens often with English texts written by Germans, because they mistakenly use the German rules for commas in English. WRONG. German needs way more commas than English. (If any native speakers of English ever wondered why Germans like to litter English texts with random superfluous commas, that's why.) It's "I just wanted to tell you that I love you", not "I just wanted to tell you, that I love you", even though it's "Ich wollte dir nur sagen, dass ich dich liebe" in German. AUGH. - But I digress.
So as you can see, those little posters inviting me to watch "Laura's Stern" are annoying me. And as I've never liked the series much, I now have a sinister sort of cross-over plot-bunny in my head. See, Lauras Stern is basically about this little girl (nobody will be surprised to hear that her name is Laura) seeing a shiny falling from the sky. She finds it, sees that it's a star, and takes it home. I don't know what happens afterwards, really. What should happen is that cutesy little Laura's home is burned down by seven tall pissed-off pointy-eared people in search of the shiny. They steal the star and take off with it. Rocks fall, everybody dies. (I'd even forgive them for the stray apostrophe if it ended like that.)
I do apologize for this
*Yes, I can bring my fandoms into any topic. But you knew that.
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no subject
Date: 2006-08-14 07:10 pm (UTC)But then, of course, we also have "Ketschup" (inconsistent - if you rape the word, why not make it "Ketschap" already?) and "Portmonee" now. (Pass the brain bleach, please?)
So perhaps it's Schangse after all. Malchance!
no subject
Date: 2006-08-14 07:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-14 07:14 pm (UTC)