Kevin's Weblog

After seeing it show up, with positive words, on enough people’s blogs, I gave in and picked up a copy of Eats, Shoots & Leaves. I’ve only finished the first chapter, but I’m a bit bothered by one of the examples.

Truss repeatedly mentions the movie title, “Two Weeks Notice”, as an example of the decline of the apostrophe. Apparently, she thinks that it ought to be “Two Weeks’ Notice”. Now, the problem here is that, as far as I can tell, the notice does not belong to the two weeks in question. On the contrary, I would consider “two weeks” to be an adjective phrase modifying the notice. Arguably, the plural is inappropriate (compare “ten gallon hat” or “five pound sack”), but I’m finding it hard to argue for an apostrophe being involved in any way.

(Skipping ahead a bit in the book, I find that she has a special rule in her list of uses for the apostrophe, for just this case (indication of time or quantity). I find this uncompelling, though, since universal application of the rule seems nonsensical. Garner seems to agree with me, although I suppose it’s possible that this is a British-ism.)