X Mode said:
Is the apostrophe absolutely necessary after "years"? Is it a rule the that the years possess the experience? :?:
Abso-aphostrophe-lutely!:lol:
It goes by the term, genitive of measure: For expressions of time and measurement, possession is shown with an apostrophe -s.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary of English Usage said:
the room's furnishings, the airplane's speed, the building's foundation, one day's leave, a dollar's worth, two dollars' worth, a year's wages, the Eighty Years' War
You know you're dealing with a genitive of measure if you can (a) replace the apostrophe with the preposition 'of' and (b) rephrase it by using a periphrastic construct:
(a) six years
' experience => six years
of experience (replaced)
(b)
six years' experience => experience
of six years (rephrased)
Periphrastic constructs are rather awkward, though, not to mention they seem a tad bit too 'formal' for some speakers, so some speakers tend to use an attributive+noun-like construct, which, on the plus-side of things, makes it easier to read (that is, X of Y becomes a Y's X. Phonetically, :lol: A wise X),
(c) experience
of six years =>
six years' experience (possessive noun)
but on the downside of things, it turns the measure word (i.e., years) into what appears to be an attributive adjective, and that's probably the reason we see speakers omitting the apostrophe in their writing. The erroneous assumption being that 'years' is an attributive adjective, and since adjectives do not take possessive -'s or -', the apostrophe, then, isn't added, when it should be added:
(d)
six years experience. :shock:
What kind of experience? :shock:
Six years. :?:
(e)
six years' experience.
What's
the measure of experience?
Six years. :up:
You know you're dealing with a possessive noun, and not an attributive noun, if you can insert an
adjective after the apostrophe:
six year's experience => six years'
typing experience
Cf. a
six year typing experience (Attributive Adjectives)
In short, in terms of grammar, the noun
years' doesn't possess the noun
experience: It describes its measure. In terms of writing, the apostrophe
is necessary because it carries meaning; it's meaningful:
My brother has
years' experience. (years of)
My bother has
years experience. (years, kind)
In terms of speech, the apostrophe that lacks phonetic representation, that is, you can't hear it, and if speakers base their writing on what they hear, and not on what they see, or read, the apostrophe won't find its way into their prose:
years
' experience [ji:rz]
years experience [ji:rz]
Here's an amusing quote: (I have no idea what 'shibboleths' means, and I am too lazy to look it up.
)
Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–) said:
Apostrophes ... missing from where they ought to be are devastating shibboleths in the view of many Standard users, who will penalize the perpetrators mercilessly for them regardless of whether haste, inadvertence, or ignorance caused the outrage against convention. Be warned.
Source: The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993
http://home.apu.edu/~rrobison/Pronunciation Web Sites.htm