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iT's or iTs
We complete this look back at the story of iT's with an article by Cathy Ellis that appeared in the very first issue of iT's for Teachers (October 1990). The artwork shows some of Juan Carlos Mena's original logo ideas.
"Hmm,"
you think, "it is...what?" Or possibly, "It has
what?" Or then again, you might think, "Its, but whose is
it?" The vexed question of The Apostrophe S continues to
trouble us, native and non-native speakers of the language, teachers,
students and even normal people, and with the its/it's distinction,
the confusion reaches its (or is it it's?) climax. As Eric Partridge
says in his guide to good English, Usage and Abusage, "The
number of persons that one might suppose to know better, who fall into
the error of it's for its (= of it) is a source of constant
surprise to any keen observer." I suppose the following extract
from an advertisement in The Guardian on February 6, 1980, for
no less an authority than the English Speaking Union, falls squarely
into this category: "It's [sic] aim is to encourage new ideas and
developments in the field of learning and teaching English". Well,
they should have known better, shouldn't they, unless the abolition
of its without the apostrophe is one of their new ideas for English!
The problem arises from a collision of two grammatical practices. Firstly, there is the 's for the possessive, as in "the queen's daughter" or "Robert's flat". But when we get to the possessive form of the personal pronouns (I, you, he, she, etc.), a special group of words exist called possessive adjectives (otherwise I suppose we'd have to say "I's book" for "my book", or "she's car" for "her car"-now that really would be confusing!). Its belongs in this category as the possessive form of it along with my, your, his, her, our and their. And as Alexander says in Longman English Grammar (Why not Longman's, I wonder?), "The apostrophe s is unacceptable with possessive adjectives and pronouns". The problem with its, then, is that it is a possessive form ending in s but without an apostrophe. Some examples: "Its reason to exist is not obvious" or "What do you think of its cover?" (Unless, of course you're talking about this magazine, in which case it would have to be, "What do you think of iT's cover?" or possibly iT's's??).
Speaking of possessive pronouns, can its be a possessive pronoun? We can say, "Those books are mine" and "Have you lost yours?" (NB: No apostrophe s here-remember what Alexander says), and of course we can say, "It's his", because in these cases it's means it is. But, in answer to the question, "Whose collar is this?", can we say, "It's its", referring to Fido the dog, peacefully sleeping collarless next to the blazing hearth? We could, of course, say, "It's its collar" (its being the possessive adjective), but then we're talking about dogs here, and as we all know, dogs are practically people, so the correct answer would be, "It's his (or hers)". The authorities concur that there is no possessive pronoun its, so my quest for a context for the sentence "It's its" ends here.
The form it's, of course, does exist but is simply a contraction of it is or it has, and in fact, the omission of the apostrophe in these cases is far less frequent than its incorrect insertion in the possessive adjective. Therefore, it's (it is) easy to tell the difference, and once you know the rule, it is (not it's in this case, as the auxiliary verb stands alone, would be stressed if spoken, and therefore cannot be contracted). So just ask yourself: Can the s be substituted with is or has, or does it mean "of it"?
The misty veils in which apostrophe s is covered for native speakers can also be seen in the fairly common practice in, for example, market stalls, of using it to form the plural, so we see signs for potato's, apricot's and avocado pear's.
It only remains to say that in answer to your musing it's, to find out what iT's is, read iT's...or...is it...iTs?
| story of iT's introduction |
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