In response to ”Making E-ZPass Easier” (July 28), let’s not overlook the profound oxymoron of both the name and idea of New Jersey’s E-ZPass system and its out-of-state cousins. (NY Times)

Sure, they’ll have to endure three or four hours in an “extended-range regional jet” — a flying oxymoron if there ever was one. But those folks don’t have to go through Dallas or Chicago or St. Louis to get to New York, and that means a lot. (WSJ)

So, rushing to my own defense, I pulled down the New Oxford American Dictionary, a dictionary I prefer to Webster’s, for a number of reasons, as detailed below, and there I found:

One of two or more available possibilities

but with a rider that added:

Some traditionalists maintain that you can only have two alternatives and that uses of more than two alternatives are erroneous. Such uses are, however, normal in modern standard English.

There was also a note about the difference between the use of “alternate” and “alternative” in American and British English – anyone writing for both markets should be very well aware of this distinction – it’s a very important linguistic distinction and is not to be ignored.

Dictionary.com (based on Random House) misses out this important note about the modern use with two or more choices, and Merriam-Webster also ignores the whole issue entirely.

However, my older printed edition of the Oxford English Dictionary makes no mention of more than two alternatives.

So who was right, my mother or me? Well, it depends on the dictionary you use, it appears. But it just shows the importance of having at least one alternative to your main reference book when you are checking these things.

Not so.

The Parsons chair takes its name from its place of invention: the Parsons School of Design founded in Paris in 1921 by Frank Alvah Parsons.

According to an article on a site called Modern Dining Chairs,

The parsons chair is virtually always crafted of hardwood, and features a slightly curving, squared backrest and legs. They are usually featured with slipcover upholstery that entirely covers the legs and gives the chair a solid, monumental appearance. This slipcover is optional or absent on many recent models.

Furniture retailers don’t seem to agree as to the spelling. You can find Parsons chair, parsons chair, Parson chair and parson chair. Until a chair design expert corrects me, I’ll go with Parsons chair in recognition of the fact that the name comes from a proper noun. However, since “Parsons” is not a commercially-registered word, I’m sure that parsons chair cannot be considered incorrect.

The word parson meaning “clergyman” derives ultimately from the same Latin word that gives us person in the sense of “human being.” The word entered English from Anglo-Fr., O.Fr. persone “curate, parson.”

Person may have come to mean “the person in charge of the local church”
by shortening the Latin phrase persona ecclesiae “person of the church.” I suppose that a pronunciation variant turned “person” into “parson.”

The word parsonage, “house for the parson,” is documented from the 15th century.

The word parson occurs in several English expressions. One that I find amusing is the parson’s nose, a reference to the fatty tail end of a cooked chicken or turkey. My granny used to gross us out by eating that bit. She may have called it the pope’s nose.

Here are some other words used to refer to personnae ecclesiae.

chaplain
clergyman
cleric
curate
pastor
preacher
priest
minister
rector
vicar

“Super Freakonomics” also tiptoes around important public policy debates such as healthcare and doesn’t dare venture into any sort of policy prescriptions using the political vernacular of the day. (LA Times)

The son of a farm labourer, Clare also wrote poetry on unrequited love, the sometimes fragile nature of his mental health – he was twice admitted to asylums – and described the natural world in his local vernacular rather than the standard English deployed by his Romantic peers. (The Guardian)

This is a construction that often perplexes writers. The first instance in each example is an appositive: a noun phrase consisting of a plural noun that modifies another noun that follows it. The form with the apostrophe is a possessive, a noun that “owns” the noun that follows it.

So if the conference is one that is organized for writers, it’s an appositive. But if it’s a conference organized by writers—one that belongs to them—it’s a possessive. Likewise, if it’s a market for farmers, the proper construction would be the appositive farmers; a market owned by the farmers would be the possessive farmers’.

The trouble with such noun phrases is that they frequently are ambiguous. Lacking insider knowledge, you’re often left to guess whether it’s an appositive or a possessive. Furthermore, there are plenty of commonly accepted constructions that defy appropriate construction.

Children’s Hospital is a case in point. Clearly, the children don’t own the hospital; it’s a hospital for children. But you’ll see the possessive apostrophe on just about every such hospital in the country. One in San Diego seems to be aware of the problem and has hedged its bet. Instead of an apostrophe in its logo, a blue kite with a tail occupies the apostrophe slot. You can choose to read it as an apostrophe or simply view it as a decoration.

An example of an entity that got it right is Publishers Weekly. This is a publication for the publishing industry, not owned by it.

The key is to do your best to determine possession (or not) and punctuate accordingly. So if it’s the boys football team, it’s an appositive. But if it’s the boys’ football uniforms, it’s a possessive.