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Wright's comments

Arabus

Senior Member
Arabic-Aleppo
Hello,

If you search in google for "wright comments," you will get a million hits of it written like that without a possessive s, like in e.g. the guardian newspaper.

This google thing is very cool, because now I always have a proof on such weird things I see.

Is the use of the possessive s optional in English?
The use of the apostrophe and letter s for possessives is not optional in English.
Newspaper and web headlines often take great liberties with the rules of standard usage.

Wright comments may be correct in some contexts. It would not be a possessive use. As you have provided no specific examples, it is not possible to determine if a particular use is correct or not.
But if you read the entries for the search for "wright comments", you see that in the actual citations, the possessive is used.*

The google thing is very cool, but you must be careful when interpreting the results.

*Edit: with the exception of headlines, as mentioned in the post below.
I would usually use "Wright's comments," but I would have no trouble understanding "Wright comments" to mean "the comments that Wright made," in the same way that you might refer to "Inquirer comments," meaning "the comments that were in the Inquirer."
It is not a possessive here, but this usage would sound awkward outside of the shorthand language used in news headlines.



... this 'upside down order' which 'underlies any inspired act, even artistic'.48 But, as Tamra Wright comments, this is not a matter of'praxis as opposed ...
... certain level of E-spirituality.188 As Mary Anna Wright comments, the Ecstasy experience did involve 'intense insights into the depth of the human ...




George T. Wright comments on the effect of such excess, looking back to an earlier Tudor model: "Like Wyatt, [Shakespeare] may have realized that a line ...



The fifth thing to note about Deuteronomic preaching is what it 27. G. Ernest Wright comments, "The Sabbath is to be kept in remembrance of the deliverance ...



explains 'endless' as here meaning extremely dark; on this Wright comments: 'If this were the meaning of "endless" there would be no need for change; ...

All of the above show up in a Google search for "Wright comments", and none is a possesive use. All are correct as written. Most of what Google returns for that search string are examples of Wright's comments.
Context is important of course, in I read this within the context of the US political (Democratic Presidential) news.

And to me "Wright's comments" meant Jeremiah Wright's comments (Obama's former spiritual adviser).
Thanks to all ...

All of the above show up in a Google search for "Wright comments", and none is a possesive use. All are correct as written. Most of what Google returns for that search string are examples of Wright's comments.

Thanks but give me some credit please, I am not that dumb.

I specifically referred in the main post to this:
(www) guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/29/barackobama.uselections20081?gusrc=rss&feed=worldnews

Also this:
(http) firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/03/14/770776.aspx

and so on ...

This is something that I've been noticing for a long time, but it just occured to me today that I ask about it.

So the answer is, again, headlines grammar? I think they ought to include headlines' grammar (is it really just in headlines?) in English courses to save us the trouble.
That's headlines for you.
They communicate in terse, incomplete, forms that are nevertheless clear and coherent - mostly.

In this particular case the headline writer might claim, with some justification, to be relying on Wright being used attributively rather than possessively.

If you want to be "given some credit please", please ensure that you quote some examples of what you are talking about rather than making broad generalisations in facetious terms.
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