Bad Punctuation

[sophie_1003]

Click on Music and take a look at the sub-categories, spot the deliberate mistake!

[Buenchico]

Those apostrophes have been annoying me for ages, Sophie ;-)

Chris

PS: Shouldn't that comma in your post be a full stop? Oops! ;-)

[sophie_1003]

I hadn't noticed them before, they'll be annoying me too now! No, the comma was my own deliberate mistake (if you would believe that!)

[jno]

Music
CD's

is obviously a reference to China Doll's collection...

[joggerjayne]

But CD and DVD are contractions of

Compact Disc

and Digital Versatile Disc.

The "isc" have been chopped off the end.

Where words are contracted by the omission of some letters, is it not correct to mark the contraction with an apostrophe?

As in ...

I'm goin' for a walk in t' countryside.

JJ x

[joggerjayne]

Is nobody going to come back with the

"contraction or abbreviation"

... counter argument?

[joggerjayne]

... or ask why the tab saying

"Q's I gave answers to"

does not say

"Q's to which I gave answers"

?

[joggerjayne]

Aww, poop.

I'm going.

[FoxLee2]

According to your argument joggerjayne, it should then be written as D'V'D' as letters have been omitted from all three words.

[joggerjayne]

Well done, Foxy ...

... who arrives with the counter argument, just in time.

=0)

[ChuckFickens]

I'll argue the point that both CD and DVD have now passed into everyday usage as they are and as such therefore are no longer seen as being acronyms so the use of an apostrophe is incorrect.

(incidentally, with DVD it could be argued that it never was an acronym as it's never been stated in the official standards that it stands for anything at all it is just referred to as DVD all the way through)

[joggerjayne]

I'm not sure that an acronym isn't slightly different ...

... from an abbreviation.

But, I will accede to Chuck's argument ...

... just for the slight, tingley thrill that comes with being dominated.

=0)



JJ x

[sophie_1003]

Sorry jj, have been away from AB for a while, I too would have argued that if it was due to abbreviation it should be D'V'D's! I'm not a grammar and punctuation genius (as pointed out by Chris!) but things like that do make me go 'grrr'! What I did find amusing was in a restaurant where they offered 'Firm chocolate mouse' on the desserts menu!

[Buenchico]

Oooh, I'm surprised that Chuck doesn't know the difference between an acronym and an abbreviation. (An acronym is an abbreviation where the composite letters form a new word, as in 'NATO').

Sophie:
Was your restaurant meal hosted by this fellow?
http://www.startedbyamouse.com/graphics/Chocol ateMouse.jpg

Chris

[ChuckFickens]

I know the difference, but in this instance half my point was that the abbreviation for compact disk (CD) has now pretty much become a word in itself so is now more of an acronym than an abbreviation.

Strictly speaking it could be called an initialism, but thats far too americanized (sic) for my liking.

[lankeela]

I thought DVD was Digital Video Disc or did I make that up?

[sophie_1003]

Chris- The link isn't working!

[Buenchico]

Hi Sophie

It's totally unimportant anyway but the link should have gone to right-hand picture, here:
http://www.startedbyamouse.com/happenings/TooM anyMickeys.shtml

Chris