a decent map, you'll find much of its' boundary is "natural" otherwise
it would be a much more regular shape than it is. If you want a good
example of "man-made" boundaries, then look at a map of the USA - it has
plenty of straight lines seperating states.

Look, I first want to apologise. It's that time of the day where the
frequency of postings is so low that I read every single one if I'm about.
Also, I'm getting grouchy due to the time of day. So my apology is for this
unnecessary and pedantic posting to point out two grammatical errors. But I
really do have NOTHING better to do.

The use of its' (sic) is incorrect. Even "it's" would be incorrect in this
case as for some bizarre reason which no one has ever explained, "its", in
possessive pronoun form (ie, the dog wags its tail) has no apostrophe.

Also, something I've never forgotten from way back in those GCSE History
lessons is our nice friendly History teacher telling us that there is "'a
rat' in separate".

Well that's about 5 minutes of time where I wasn't 100% bored... My boredom
levels have now receded to only 86%.

Ronnie
--
http://www.blugman.freeserve.co.uk

As the wise man says:
"Remember - there is no more important safety rule than to wear these:
safety glasses"

In article , John Rowland wrote:

GBP2 buys a Bus Pass, not a Travelcard.

Is there a difference between where you can go on the bus with a zones
1-4 buspass, and where you can go with a travelcard?


Christopher

--
Christopher Allen . + . -===""===- c==== .
email: * . . \ \____}}
WWW: http://ruah.dyndns.org/~cpcallen/ . * @====-' .
snail: Studio 10, 319 Archway Rd. London N6 5AA U.K. . *

On Mon, 21 Jul 2003 06:25:06 +0100 Ronnie Clark wrote:
}
} The use of its' (sic) is incorrect. Even "it's" would be incorrect in this
} case as for some bizarre reason which no one has ever explained, "its", in
} possessive pronoun form (ie, the dog wags its tail) has no apostrophe.

Neither his nor hers has an apostrophe. Yours doesn't and mine doesn't.
While theirs too has a conspicuous absence of them.

Why then should its not having one be bizarre?

Matthew
--
Il est important d'être un homme ou une femme en colère; le jour où nous
quitte la colère, ou le désir, c'est cuit. - Barbara

http://www.calmeilles.co.uk/

On Mon, 21 Jul 2003 17:07:20 +0100 Steve Naïve wrote:
} Matthew Malthouse wrote in
} :
}
} On Mon, 21 Jul 2003 06:25:06 +0100 Ronnie Clark wrote:
} }
} } The use of its' (sic) is incorrect. Even "it's" would be incorrect
} in this } case as for some bizarre reason which no one has ever
} explained, "its", in } possessive pronoun form (ie, the dog wags its
} tail) has no apostrophe.
}
} Neither his nor hers has an apostrophe. Yours doesn't and mine
} doesn't. While theirs too has a conspicuous absence of them.
}
} You missed 'whose' and 'ours' as well.

Ours, and the others mentioned, are (absolute) posessive pronouns.

Whose, along with that, what, which, who and whom, are relative
pronouns.

The man whose post that was - relative
Was that your post - posessive.

} Perhaps the 'odd one out' isn't 'its' but 'one' (the genitive situation
} being one's). Or maybe 'one' isn't really a pronoun?

Its is an odd one.

That is my book that book is mine - posessive and absolute
possive bot correct in
usage.
That is its tail that tail is its - Technically correct the
latter construnction is not
good usage.

You're right. "one" is odd too. Sometimes it's a pronoun (the
impersonal pronoun) and sometimes it's not. There wouldn't be a
problem if we'd retained the habit of using the corresponding part of a
persona pronoun when one required a possessive, reflexive or deputy
pronoun:
One does not like to have his [or their] word doubted.
UK usage had mostly and US usage increasingly replaceed this with
One does not like to have one's...
the invention of a possessive and the form of that invention being
apostrophised are modern aberations.

Oh hell. Which idot got me started on this....

Matthew
--

http://www.calmeilles.co.uk/

Charles Ellson writes
Charles Ellson writes
What 'obsession' is this?

The same obsession which runs parallel to claiming to be the "capital
city" and naming the county hall "City Hall" when GL isn't a city.

What else can they call it?
Anything that doesn't describe it as something it isn't.

Whatever.

It's not a county
So what's the difference between now and 1965?

The building in London called County Hall is used for other purposes.
The GLC took over the LCC's County Hall.

- and in any event there's already a place called County Hall.

There are lots of places called "County Hall" - roughly one in each
er.... county.

Jolly good.

It has also spread to road signs where various places have been
omitted/deleted and replaced by compass-point London where the road
doesn't even lead to London or to a sensible approach route for the
signed part of London.snip

If you think a sign is misleading or inaccurate, then take it up with
TfL of your local Borough as appropriate.

You won't normally find "London" as a destination on a burgh road, and
TfL don't operate outwith Greater London unless you know of any secret
empire-building planned by Ken.

I don't see what relevance any of that has to what precedes it.


--
Dave

John Rowland writes
You can get to Slough (route 81), Dorking (route 465),
Redhill (route 405) and Watford Junction (routes 142/258)
by Travelcard - but only on the bus...

That's fantastic - all the way to Slough (and back) for £2
from south London, in about 2 hours.

GBP2 buys a Bus Pass, not a Travelcard.

Makes no odds, One Day Bus Passes also valid on TfL routes outside
Greater London.

(In fact any 'all-zones' bus pass is valid on such services - as are
*all* Travelcards, irrespective of zonal validity.)

--
Dave

And lo, "Nick" spake unto us all
anouncing
Actually, I can't believe it would actually cost *that* much in the grand
scheme of the TfL budget and would actually make a real difference for us
Z1-6 Travelcard holders...

Why not just have zone 7? You could put all the tube ABCD
zones into it, move the stations that are actually outside
Z6 into it and fix a few other anomalies.

PRAR
--
http://www.i.am/prar/
As long as people will accept crap, it will be financially profitable to dispense it. Dick Cavett
Please reply to the newsgroup. That is why it exists.
NB Anti-spam measures in force
- If you must email me use the Reply to address and not

In article , Ronnie Clark
writes
It is the whole region of possessive pronouns not having apostrophes that I
consider bizarre when for nouns apostrophes are used precisely for
indicating possession!

It isn't bizarre. You simply have a wrong mental model of the situation.
Apostrophes are *not* used for indicating possession, they are used for
indicating missing letters. So:

do not - don't
cannot - can't
it is - it's but its (possessive)
he is - he's but his (possessive)
friendes - friend's but friends (plural)

Where did "persones" come from, I hear you ask? English was previously a
much more inflected language than it is now. In particular, it had a
separate genitive case which ended "-es" in the singular and "-se" or
"-ses" in the plural. Over time the "e" stopped being sounded and the
letter started to be omitted in response. So it is replaced by an
apostrophe.

Pronouns are whole words - I me my mine, he him his, it its - and aren't
missing letters. So no apostrophe.

Possessives of nouns are abbreviations of the old genitive case, so
they're missing letters, so need an apostrophe.

--
Clive D.W. Feather, writing for himself | Home:
Tel: +44 20 8371 1138 (work) | Web: http://www.davros.org
Fax: +44 870 051 9937 | Work:
Written on my laptop; please observe the Reply-To address

In uk.railway, (PRAR) writes:

Why not just have zone 7? You could put all the tube ABCD
zones into it, move the stations that are actually outside
Z6 into it and fix a few other anomalies.

As well as making a good excuse for increasing the price of an
all-zone travelcard.

"Graham Murray" wrote in message
...
In uk.railway, (PRAR) writes:

Why not just have zone 7? You could put all the tube ABCD
zones into it, move the stations that are actually outside
Z6 into it and fix a few other anomalies.

As well as making a good excuse for increasing the price of an
all-zone travelcard.

And twenty years down the line Edinburgh and Glasgow are in Zone 15..... ;-)

Nick