Potatoes do not have the ability to possess things

An Ad

Integrate business news on your website free of charge and offer your visitors up-to-date content! Click here for more information.

In the Saturday's edition of The Times John Humphrys reviewed most famous socio-linguists David Crystal's newest addition to the shelves. In his latest book "How language works", 'Professor Crystal takes particular exception to those who think a large proportion of the population is "linguistically criminal". They believe in the small set of rules they have managed themselves to acquire. They condemn others who have not had the same educational opportunities for not following those same rules: "Enthused by the Stalinesque policing metaphor, they advocate a policy of zero tolerance to eradicate all traces of the aberrant behaviour,"' Humphrys writes.

According to David Crystal, spelling the plural of potato as "potato's" is as acceptable as it was in the 18th century because "Everyone knows it must be a plural for the obvious reason that we know potatoes do not have the ability to possess things."

For linguists and language professionals alike books on the nature of languages are always worth a read, but so is the review by Humphrys in The Times.

Read the Review in The Times