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Why, when you are talking about something belonging to "it" does "it" not get an apostrophe before the "s"? For example, "The dog ate its food" - the food belongs to "it". Shouldn't there be an apostrophe, like if you were to say "the dog ate the dog's food"?

Tristan
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Michael
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    For the same reason as there is no apostrophe in his. – Colin Fine Jul 11 '22 at 17:39
  • @ColinFine That's different because his is a word on its (ha) own and is possessive by definition, whereas it is not - the s makes it possessive – Michael Jul 11 '22 at 22:42
  • Because (am I really saying this?) its food is the dog's food. Whereas, it's means it is in contracted form.... – Lambie Jul 11 '22 at 23:57
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    @Michael However 'her' is a word on its own and takes a unapostrophised 's' to make the possessive pronoun 'hers'. In fact there is an argument that 'his' is just an amended spelling of 'hes' which would be consistent, but where's the fun in that? – BoldBen Jul 12 '22 at 09:19
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    @Michael what makes you think its is not a word in its own right? – Tristan Jul 12 '22 at 09:53
  • @BoldBen his is definitely not an amended spelling of hes, we know this because we have the ancestral forms attested all the way back to Old English. It's had a short i as the vowel the entire time (well, from Proto-Germanic onwards, in PIE it was an e) – Tristan Jul 12 '22 at 10:45

2 Answers2

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It's purely conventional.

In linguistics, writing systems are usually considered a separate thing from the language itself—they tend to be deliberately constructed and taught, and can be deliberately modified much more easily than the language can. Centuries of concerted effort haven't dissuaded English-speakers from using "ain't" or singular "they", but a single person's choices in the 1930s gave us "analog" and "catalog" alongside the -ue versions.

In other words, it's pretty easy for spelling to change for pretty much any reason, and it was even easier in the past before the proliferation of dictionaries and spellcheckers. Someone decided that it would be useful to differentiate "its" and "it's" by the apostrophe, and it caught on; since "it's" is an actual contraction (a sound has been removed), it kept the apostrophe, and the other one lost it.

Draconis
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  • A further point illustrating convention: In close relatives to English, the genitive -s is still used, but doesn't use an apostrophe. – Azor Ahai -him- Jul 11 '22 at 21:46
  • @AzorAhai-him- That's different because his is a word on its own and is possessive by definition, whereas it is not - the s makes it possessive – Michael Jul 11 '22 at 22:42
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    @Michael I believe he's saying that in e.g. German, "man's" is Mannes or Manns, written with no apostrophe. Many Germanic languages use an -s to mark possession, but most don't put an apostrophe before it. – Draconis Jul 11 '22 at 23:19
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    There is logic in this madness: its, his, hers, ours, theirs, yours, only mine does not take an s. And it is, he is, she is, etc. it's, he's, she's So, it's not purely conventional. I doubt those all had apostrophes. – Lambie Jul 12 '22 at 00:12
  • @Michael Draconis has it. – Azor Ahai -him- Jul 12 '22 at 01:59
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    @Lambie the thing is, "its" is the newest pronoun -- discounting the gender neutral neopronouns that never caught on -- replacing "his" in the neuter, and is etymologically "it" plus the genitive clitic, which by that time was spelled with an apostrophe. The other possessives, pronoun and determiner alike, are unrelated to the modern genitive construction, with the possible exception of "his" being ancestral. So yes, it is purely conventional, albeit a convention no doubt influenced by what you noticed – No Name Jul 12 '22 at 03:09
  • @NoName the other possessives are not unrelated to the modern genitive construction. They all derive from the Proto-Indo-European genitive. The other pronouns retain their original genitives, whilst the nouns get their possessive forms from the thematic genitive singular (generalised to all nouns of any number, and to "it", and eventually being freed to apply to apply to an entire noun phrase rather than to the head noun alone). The idea that the possessive 's derives from "his" is a folk etymological argument to explain the apostrophe and has no basis in historical linguistics – Tristan Jul 12 '22 at 09:57
  • Yeah, I suspect this convention was brought about by early printers, who felt it was useful to distinguish between "it's" and "its". Early printing often required setting conventions where previously there were just handwriting habits. – Hot Licks Jul 12 '22 at 12:09
  • "The idea that the possessive 's derives from "his" is a folk etymological argument". Ah, as in the cat's pajamas. Right? But there is no intrinsic relationship between it's and its. – Lambie Jul 12 '22 at 13:47
  • @Tristan when I said "possible exception of his being ancestral" I was not referring to the folk etymology, but to the fact that the s in his and the genitive clitic are both from the same source. Probably should have used a different word – No Name Jul 12 '22 at 17:01
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English differentiates contracted forms such as it's, he's, she's, I'm etc.

from the possessive pronouns: its, his, hers, its, ours, theirs, yours and the outlier mine.

Lambie
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