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Joined: Mar 2012 Gender: Male Posts: 10 Location: UK
Re: Inanimate objects « Reply #16 on Mar 9, 2012, 8:35pm »
To go back to the original post: a company can own things. Companies have "legal personality" (look it up in Wikipedia) and have some of the rights of real human beings, including the right to own property. Note also that the Joint Stock Companies Act 1844 does not have an apostrophe.
Joined: Jan 2012 Gender: Male Posts: 458 Location: W. Yorkshire, England
Re: Inanimate objects « Reply #18 on Mar 10, 2012, 12:35am »
One of your examples of the correct use of an apostrophe is in fact incorrect.
Your example is "the company's logo".
A company is an inanimate object, and an inanimate object cannot take the possessive case.
Try telling the French or Spaniards that an inanimate object can't do this or that. All their inanimate objects are masculine or feminine. Do we therefore infer that a book has a male member or a window has a fanny?
Language is not always logical nor literal.
Invoking rules doesn't always help either. As so many have pointed out on this forum, what appears to be a rule can often be no more than a preferred style.
[p.s. I tried to use the biological names for the genitalia but they were censored or filtered out. I protest in the strongest possible terms at this barbarity ]
Re: Inanimate objects « Reply #19 on Mar 10, 2012, 2:46pm »
So we can't defend the country's borders, drop the ship's anchor, or enjoy the sun's rays?
No word that's in the OED should be censored!
Reminds me of a recent documentary about Mary Whitehouse (British clean-up-TV campaigner). She was originally going to call her organization the Campaign for the Upholding of National Televison Standards (or something similar) until her husband pointed out 'the error of her acronym'.
So we can't defend the country's borders, drop the ship's anchor, or enjoy the sun's rays?
'Twould be a tad dull, no?
Quote:
No word that's in the OED should be censored!
Hear! Hear! (And Hear again!)
Quote:
Reminds me of a recent documentary about Mary Whitehouse [...] was originally going to call her organization the Campaign for the Upholding of National Televison Standards (or something similar) until her husband pointed out 'the error of her acronym'.
I too saw that docudrama and enjoyed a few laughs and a few cringes. I'm given to understand, however, that the C-word acronym was an invention for effect in the film and did not happen in reality.
But it was a good story.
(In the early 80s -- ? -- I was party to a Mary Shitehouse event in Adelaide, South Oz. A large assembly of us "others" had acquired tickets to this special Town Hall event. Another of our number -- all occupying the front few rows near the stage / rostrum -- spent the evening finishing a crocheted 'tea-cosy' style of cap / headpiece (the season being midwinter), in full distracting view of Her Righteousness.
Later, as we filed out, shaking hands with MW then standing quietly aside but still within the lady's view, the last of us presented Mrs W with the cap -- and clearly announced that it came "with love from the radical gay-rights activists lined up over there", pointing to our group.
(The tagline worked into the cap was a popular slogan of the time: "toward more polymorphous perversity".
(I had to credit the woman with "cool": after almost having the vapours in public, she managed to get a grip on herself, stiffen her upper lip, and Carry On. )
We meant no (more) offence (than she meant to us), but we were most earnestly Consciousness Raising (who here remembers that fad?).
Joined: Jan 2012 Gender: Male Posts: 458 Location: W. Yorkshire, England
Re: Inanimate objects « Reply #22 on Mar 11, 2012, 9:16pm »
Inanimate objects « Thread Started on Dec 30, 2009, 1:00am » Does anyone know why this thread appeared recently yet had a start date in 2009? Are the old threads being recycled?
Joined: Feb 2009 Gender: Female Posts: 909 Location: West of London (ex-Hampshire)
Re: Inanimate objects « Reply #23 on Mar 11, 2012, 9:49pm »
>Does anyone know why this thread appeared recently yet had a start date in 2009? <
Yes.
A new poster, "piimapoika", has seemingly been dredging through old posts and replying to them with, "objections" (with which it would seem that some of us don't agree), or, in this case, additional clarification.
But then it's all grist for the mill of lively debate, innit?
To go off at a tangent: Should it be 'Hear! Hear!' or 'Here! Here!'? I was told that the latter was the correct usage because the intent was to indicate the source of the support being given. Does anyone have a definitive answer?
Joined: Feb 2009 Gender: Female Posts: 909 Location: West of London (ex-Hampshire)
Re: Inanimate objects « Reply #25 on Mar 12, 2012, 9:38pm »
>Does anyone have a definitive answer?<
Hear, hear - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hear,_hear Hear, hear is an expression used as a short, repeated form of hear him, hear him. It represents a listener's agreement with the point being made by a speaker.
The Straight Dope: Why do people say, "Hear, hear"? www.straightdope.com/columns/read/.../why-do-people-say-hear-hea... What is the origin of "Here Here" or "Hear Hear"? ... It is an abbreviation for "hear, all ye good people, hear what this brilliant and eloquent speaker has to say!" ...
Hear hear www.phrases.org.uk › Phrase Dictionary - Meanings and Origins Hear hear. Meaning. A shout of acclamation or agreement. Origin. Originated in the British parliament in the 18th century as a contraction of 'hear him, hear him'.
[...] To go off at a tangent: Should it be 'Hear! Hear!' or 'Here! Here!'? I was told that the latter was the correct usage because the intent was to indicate the source of the support being given. Does anyone have a definitive answer?
The OED says:
hear: 13. a. The imperative hear!, now usually repeated, hear! hear! (formerly hear him! hear him!) is used as an exclamation to call attention to a speaker's words, and hence has become a general expression of approbation or ‘cheering’. It is now the regular form of cheering [cheer n.1 8] in the House of Commons, and expresses, according to intonation, admiration, acquiescence, indignation, derision, etc.
b. Hence as n. hear, hear! (formerly hear-him), a cheer. Also hear-hear v. intr., to shout ‘hear! hear!’; trans., to acclaim with shouts of ‘hear! hear!’; to cheer. Hence hear-ˈhearer.
Typist. OED gives for typer only 'A typewriting machine'. For typist it gives '1. One who uses type; a printer, a compositor. 2. One who does typewriting'.
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