| 词组 | its, it's |
| 释义 | its, it's It is easy to state the standard rule (after all, we have seen it in about forty usage books, handbooks, and schoolbooks): it's is the contraction of it is and it has; its is the third person neuter possessive pronoun. But these two forms have been frequently interchanged and entangled throughout their history, and you can be sure that they still are—or forty books would not have to carry reminders. Both forms seem to have come into use around the beginning of the 17th century. Let's begin with the pronoun. It is first attested in 1598 as its in an Italian-English dictionary written by John Florio. Strang 1970 terms Florio a foreigner; he was the son of an Italian Protestant refugee, but he was probably born in London. Before this the usual possessive (in writing, at least) was his. Richard Mulcaster, for instance, in his Elementarie of 1582 has this: • ... euerie word almost either wanting letters, for his necessarie sound, or having ... Another popular solution to the neuter possessive problem was to use the uninflected it, as Shakespeare did: • ... it had it head bit off by it young —King Lear, 1606 (in Strang, OED) Shakespeare seems not to have used its, although the OED says he might have written the it's used as an absolute adjective in Henry VIII (acted in 1613). Editors began putting its in Shakespeare's plays later (McKnight 1928 gives an example of it changed to its in the Third Folio, 1664). Wyld 1920 notes that its is not used in the 1611 Bible. And it does not appear as one of the possessive pronouns in Ben Jonson's grammar (published posthumously in 1640). Nevertheless it established itself during the 17th century, and Strang says that after mid-century the alternative his signifies an element of personification. The troublesome fact for us moderns is that the predominant form in printing was it's. The apostrophized form was used by the above-mentioned Florio as early as 1603. It may have been given this form because it was felt not to be a separate possessive pronoun like his, her, or their but simply it with the's of the genitive attached to it. This possibility is borne out to a certain extent by Priestley 1761; he lists it's as the genitive of it and does not include it in the list of possessive pronouns at all. It's was apparently the more common form of the pronoun throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. In the 18th century we find such uses as these: • ... our language has made it's way singly by it's own weight and merit —Lord Chesterfield, letter to The World, 28 Nov. 1754 • ... of it's real import —Adam Smith (in Leonard 1929) • ... when it is omitted and it's Place supplied with an Apostrophe —Baker 1770 Late 18th-century users carried it into the early 19th century: • ... estimate it's merit —Thomas Jefferson, letter, 21 May 1787 • ... will work it's effect —Thomas Jefferson, letter, 21 Aug. 1818 • ... the assurance of it's being... —Jane Austen, letter, 8 Nov. 1800 The unapostrophized its was in competition with it's from the beginning and began its rise to dominance in the mid 18th century. Lowth 1762 gave its as the possessive form of it (even though he seems to have favored her's, etc.). Baker gave it's in 1770, as we saw above, but switched to its in his 1779 edition. Lindley Murray 1795 used the unapostrophized form even to the point of muddlement: Campbell 1776 had complained about the genitive it's being misused for 'tis, the contraction of it is. Murray elaborated on this topic but used its even in his example of misuse: "Its my book." The modern assumption that its came to predominate for the pronoun in order to distinguish it from it's "it is" is supported by Campbell's complaint. Campbell also makes the point that 'tis was the usual contraction of it is. But even if 'tis predominated, it's was in at least occasional use: • ... and it's come to pass ... This tractable obedience is a slave To each incensed will—Shakespeare, Henry VIII, 1613 • Why, sir, it's your own fault —Sir John Vanbrugh, The Relapse, 1696 Since we all know that it's predominates over 'tis today, we may reasonably suppose that its came to be preferred as a contrasting pronoun form. Another more recent assumption is that this distinction, which presumably developed during the 19th and early 20th centuries, is being lost. The reappearance of prenominal it's (which may never have completely disappeared) is certainly well documented. It is frequently noticed in signs and posters, as by Simon 1980, for instance. We have also found it in letters, advertisements, flyers, mail-order catalogs, and animal-husbandry journals. But—and if you are an alarmist, you may view this with alarm—we have also found it in edited, more widely circulated publications: Vogue (1985), New York Times Magazine (1984), Southern Living (1983), Springfield (Mass.) Morning Union (1983), This England (1983), People (mi), and Gourmet (1981). These cannot all be typos, can they? And the distinction is under milder pressure from the other side—from the George Bernard Shaws who eschew the apostrophe in general and use only its for all purposes. We tend to agree with Reader's Digest 1983 that the insistence on its for the pronoun as necessary to distinguish the pronoun from the contraction does not make much sense, since the 's does everything for the noun. Jean's can be possessive in "Jean's coat" and it can be a contraction in "Jean's here" and "Jean's already read it." Use of one form in three functions with the noun does not seem to trouble anyone. Still, we do not recommend that you rush to espouse the apostrophized pronoun. The possessive pronouns were a complete muddle in the 18th century. The grammarians were divided between apostrophized and unapostrophized forms, and frequently their own usage contradicted whatever conclusions they had reached. Over time the confusion has sorted itself out, and we now have a modestly consistent set of unapostrophized pronouns. So even though the apostrophe is on the rise (see the article at apostrophe), we see no particular reason to go back to 18th-century usage. We recommend that you stick with its for the pronoun and it's for the contraction. |
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