The Harris-Walz campaign is confusing grammar nerds everywhere

[sl8]

https://www.npr.org/2024/08/18/nx-s1-5075211/the-harris-walz-campaign-is-confusing-grammar-nerds-everywhere

3 min. audio, transcript, at link. (part of the discussion is how the words sound, which doesn't come across very well in the transcript)

Also, "... then all of humanity could partake in the enjoyment of forming possessives simply and purely, and it would be much better."

The Harris-Walz campaign is confusing grammar nerds everywhere

AUGUST 18, 2024 8:18 AM ET
HEARD ON WEEKEND EDITION SUNDAY
David Folkenflik

What's the rule for making a name ending in 's' possessive, or plural possessive? NPR's David Folkenflik talks with grammarian Ellen Jovin, who's watched the confusion over the Harris-Walz ticket.

[...]

JOVIN: OK, well, what I want everyone to do - thank you for this opportunity, by the way - is to just add on the singular possessive - just stick an apostrophe-S on it, and stop all the other nonsense that's going on.

FOLKENFLIK: So for Walz, pretty much everybody is putting the apostrophe-S after his name. But for Vice President Harris, the AP, as I understand it - NPR also - makes her possessive by simply having an apostrophe and nothing else. How is it that some organizations, including my own wayward one, choose to go a different way from your suggested rule?

JOVIN: Are you asking me about the why of this? - because the y is part of my problem with it. I don't like it because you actually pronounce that extra syllable, and I think you might as well reflect it in the writing. People don't say Harris family. They say Harris' family. So just like Walz, you might as well add the apostrophe-S. That is my argument.

[...]