Look what I found...

Good plan.

--
Veggie Dave
UKRMHRC#2 BOTAFOF#08
IQ 18 FILMS http://www.iq18films.com
Extreme Racing http://www.veggie-dave.co.uk
Toxic Shock Syndrome Gets More Girls Than Me

 

Unless the son's parents were both coppers, and therefore it was
possessive and plural, it would be the copper's son.

--
Veggie Dave
UKRMHRC#2 BOTAFOF#08
IQ 18 FILMS http://www.iq18films.com
Extreme Racing http://www.veggie-dave.co.uk
Toxic Shock Syndrome Gets More Girls Than Me

 

Ah, great excuse that. I've used that many a time.

 

Is it that simple? Bugger me.

 

'The piglet'.

HTH

--
Krusty.

http://www.muddystuff.co.uk
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Off-road classifieds

'02 MV Senna '03 Tiger (FOYRNB) '96 Tiger '79 Fantic 250

 

On the principle; the copper, his son = the copper's son

 

If that were indeed the derivation, don't you think we'd have
different endings for feminine and neuter?

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`

 

If both parents were coppers, he'd be the coppers' son; if only one, the
copper's son. There *is* usually a logic to it, though I concede that it's
frequently very well hidden!

 

His Ma must've been a right slapper if she didn't know who the father
was.
--
Dave
GS850x2 XS650 SE6a
I demand nothing of you except that you amuse me.

Folding@Home Team UKRM
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Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Grimly Curmudgeon

I may have mentioned this before, but one of my mates used to swear
that, on his birth certificate, under "Father" it said "Some soldiers".

--
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the ability to unlearn old falsehoods.

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Suzuki TS250 "The Africa Single" Yamaha GTS1000

 

That is indeed the derivation, and 18C and early 19C writers did
really sometimes use it as "the copper, his son". I have no idea why
there is no feminine side. Hmm, maybe it was also "the cook, her son"
(e.g.) but that never got contracted as it was a male world and more
possessives pertained to the male form?

--
Marina Mayes - Reading, UK. To email me remove XX from my address
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"You're a national treasure" - porl, 18.1.03

 

An entry on many an Eastern European birth cert immediately post-war,
iwt.
--
Dave
GS850x2 XS650 SE6a
I demand nothing of you except that you amuse me.

Folding@Home Team UKRM
http://vspx27.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=teampage&teamnum=47957

 

The logic may well be simple laziness, both parents are coppers,
then it would have been coppers's son.

But that's too much! So the last 's' was dropped.

 

This would have some more credence if it weren't for the fact that the
possesive 's' is used (without an apostrophe) in german and other
languages where the 3rd person possessive pronoun bears no relation to
'his'. I don't dispute the usage you describe, but suggest that the
derivation is a) a lot earlier than that[1] and b) rooted in other
languages.

The use of the apostrophe in the possesive is indeed an 18th c.
development.

[1] Tyndale's bible of 1534, for example "am I my brothers keeper?".
Earlier yet, "the londes [lands] and tenements that weren [were] Hugh
Fastoffs..." in a 1418 letter from Henry V.
--
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\`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2
`\|/`
`

 

Maight this in other languages not come from the same usage?

Of which I was speaking.

OK.

--
Marina Mayes - Reading, UK. To email me remove XX from my address
SR250 - on the road again. BOTAFOT12, BOD#2, BOTAFOS#2
KotLBOD#s, KotLBOTAFOS#s,IMC#2, Tart#10-19, SR#3
I never give in to fear or blackmail; I always give in to temptation.
"You're a national treasure" - porl, 18.1.03

 

No, because, as I pointed out, they don't use "his". In German, for
example, it would be sein, hence the conraction from "Der Mannr, seine
Frau" to "Der Manns Frau" would be unlikely, to say the least.

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2
`\|/`
`

 

As contrasted with the mulish insistence of a certain thoroughfare in SW1
that it should be known as St. James's Street. 1 2 3, all together now
children, this is the exception which proves the rule. George .... don't do
thaaat.

 

"When I were young I wanted to be an injuneer but now I are one.."



Phil

 

Say the two words out loud - coppers' son and St. James's. When you say
'coppers' there's only one ess sound (or one ess syllable, if you like)
at the end, whereas with 'St. James's' there are two ess sounds (or two
ess syllables), hence the second 's'.

--
Veggie Dave
UKRMHRC#2 BOTAFOF#08
IQ 18 FILMS http://www.iq18films.com
Extreme Racing http://www.veggie-dave.co.uk
Toxic Shock Syndrome Gets More Girls Than Me

 

Die Frau des Mannes?

But skool was long ago and far away...