The Role of Variation and Change in the Evolution of the Apostrophe as a Genitive Case Marker

Seminar paper from the year 2014 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2,0, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (Fachbereich 05: Department of English and Linguistics), course: Grammatical Variation, language: English, abstract: This paper explores one of the pecularities of the English language: The use of the apostrophe as a genitive case marker. In tracing the historical development of genitive marking by means of the apostrophe, the contributing role of different variants and changes are discussed, namely the his-genitive and the development of phrasal genitive marking.

Additionally the evolution of various functions of the apostrophe is taken into account, thus attempting to answer the question of why the English language would come to adopt a diacritical sign as a method of genitive case marking. The main historical focus lies on Early Modern English as a pivotal time in this development. As the evolution of the apostrophe as a genitive marker was not concluded in this period, the paper assesses its development up to contemporary language use.