The Cellar - Apostrophe Abuse/neglect

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- - Apostrophe Abuse/neglect (http://cellar.org/showthread.php?t=21287)

jinx	10-28-2009 09:44 PM

It's totally an adjective.

monster

10-28-2009 09:47 PM

or should we be saying Academics in the first place?

or should we change Sports to Sporting.......

Perhaps I need to say Sport not Sports like Americans say Math not Maths?

pehaps it needs to be IM Sport Teams?

monster

10-28-2009 09:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZenGum (Post 604074)

The teachers confirm, no apostrophe is needed. Also, the M in mural should be lower case because it is in the middle of a hyphenated word, not at the beginning of a word..

yeah, it should be -but that's definitely a "When In Rome" thing

Cloud

10-28-2009 09:54 PM

no, I think "sports teams" is either a compond noun or a noun phrase. The proper possessive would be sports teams' something. My Chicago Manual of style says this:

"in compound nouns and noun phrases the final element usually takes the possessive form. [such as:]

student assistants' time cards." Except there's no possessive here, right?

for an opposite reaction (thereby making me wrong) it says:
"the line between a possessive or genitive form and a noun used attributively--as an adjective--is sometimes fuzzy, especially in the plural. . . . Chicago dispenses with the apostrophe only in proper nounts or where there is clearly no possesive meaning:

the women's team (clearly possessive)
a consumer's group

It's a pretty hard grammatical problem, but I really don't think there's any possessive there, so I still think no apostrophe

xoxoxoBruce

10-29-2009 02:10 AM

The teams are not a possession of sports.:headshake

ZenGum

10-29-2009 05:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by monster (Post 604078)

yeah, it should be -but that's definitely a "When In Rome" thing

When in Rome, teach the ignorant yokels to speak English properly.

Spexxvet

10-29-2009 07:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by monster (Post 604047)

...
a) Intra-Mural Sports' Teams
b) Intra-Mural Sports Teams
c) Intra-Mural Sport's Teams

It's a title referring to several school teams who play a sport against teams from other schools. The teams are the people doing the fundraising the poster is about, ...

They are teams fundraising for sports. No possessive.

BTW, if they are playing against other schools, they are interscholastic, not intramural.;)

monster

10-29-2009 08:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spexxvet (Post 604135)

BTW, if they are playing against other schools, they are interscholastic, not intramural.;)

Oh just don't get me started. I really do try not to cause trouble because I manage enough without trying....

Reg	10-29-2009 11:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZenGum (Post 604117)

When in Rome, teach the ignorant yokels to speak English properly.

Speak loudly and slowly while pointing

lumberjim

10-29-2009 11:50 AM

Quote:

4. Skitt’s Law
Expressed as "any post correcting an error in another post will contain at least one error itself" or "the likelihood of an error in a post is directly proportional to the embarrassment it will cause the poster."

TheMercenary

10-29-2009 11:57 AM

I say b) with a variation:

b) Intra-Mural Sport Teams

Cloud

10-29-2009 12:18 PM

dubiously: who says "sport teams"? Maybe if you are only talking about a single sport, but it would then be more common to say baseball teams, or soccer teams.

Clodfobble

10-29-2009 12:31 PM

Teams is a dumb word.

Make it Intramural Athletics.

jinx	10-29-2009 12:39 PM

How about:

School Bake Sale

Flint

10-29-2009 12:48 PM

I'm sure the teacher intended "Intra-Mural Sports' Teams" to mean "the teams of (or belonging to) the intra-mural sports entity."

That only makes sense if there is an "entity" to which the teams belong.

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