punctuation geeks

[dakegra]

Oh, the apostrophe thing in my previous post - someone linked to this apostrophe test on twitter last night. I took issue with one of the questions



You have to select *one* option as the correct answer. Go for it.

Question 10:
a) The Roman's bridges and roads were vital for moving the troops' supplies.
b) The Romans' bridges and roads were vital for moving the troops' supplies.
c) The Romans' bridges and roads were vital for moving the troop's supplies.
d) The Romans bridge's and road's were vital for moving the troops supplies.

Which did you go for? Here's my reasoning:

a) works, if you're talking about one specific Roman, and if he built (or was responsible for building) the bridges and roads being used by the many troops.
b) works, if you have lots of Romans and lots of troops. This is the 'correct' answer.
c) also works (imho), if you're talking about one *specific* troop.
d) is an offence against punctuation, and should never be spoken of in polite company.

thoughts, comments, rants welcomed.

Comments

[miss-t-ide.livejournal.com]

I'm going to disagree with you. We talk about "the troops", rather than just "troops", in order to identify them with the particular nation or set of nations. If we're talking about a single troop then we would probably say "a troop". Removing the the from that sentence makes it less clear that we're talking about the Romans' own troops, rather than troops in general.

[songster.livejournal.com]

Nah, could have been some other troop using the roads, e.g. "Boudicca sent a troop to intercept the Roman scouts. Ironically, the Romans' own roads were essential to the troop's swift passage." As ayoub says, the "the" shifts things from (b) towards (c) as it's the definite article, focusing on a definite (singular) troop.

As far as (a) is concerned, "The Roman" could be used in the figurative sense, with a singular Roman standing for the nation, e.g. "The Roman of today is a mean, swarthy fellow. Full of lechery, he has more in common with the Frenchman than his own noble forebears. Where now are the heirs of Caesar and Crassus?"

[ayoub.livejournal.com]

You might be right :)