[Vwoolf] Mrs. vs Mrs

Sarah M. Hall smhall123 at yahoo.co.uk
Fri Mar 1 03:33:53 EST 2019


 Similar point to Caroline's: in terms of grammar, the current British standard is to drop the full point for contractions where the final letter is present, e.g. Mrs, Dr, St, Revd, and retain it for abbreviations, e.g. Prof., Capt., Rev. For initialisms the full points are nearly always dropped, e.g. UK, US, EU (sniff), BSc, PhD, BBC, FBI.
But with titles/places/proper names, as for quotations, you would reproduce the original exactly; so the 1925 edition would be Mrs. Dalloway and, strictly speaking, Monks House would be without the apostrophe, as this was on the gate. 



    On Friday, 1 March 2019, 01:53:28 GMT, Caroline Webb via Vwoolf <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu> wrote:  
 
 
It’s an interesting point (so to speak).  One of the many things I had to learn when I went to the US in the early 1980s was to add a full stop/period after abbreviations of this type; by the late twentieth century British (and Commonwealth) English had stabilised on using this only where the last letter of the abbreviation was not the same as the last letter of the full word if spelled out (so no full stop after “Mrs,” originally an abbreviation of “Mistress”).  
 
  
 
Presumably this style marker was not rigid in the 1920s—or Woolf and her press favoured the US approach.
 
  
 
Caroline
 
  
 
From: Vwoolf <vwoolf-bounces+caroline.webb=newcastle.edu.au at lists.osu.edu>On Behalf Of Anne Fernald via Vwoolf
Sent: Friday, 1 March 2019 12:43 PM
To: Mark Hussey <mhussey at verizon.net>
Cc: Woolf Listserv <vwoolf at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] Mrs. vs Mrs
 
  
 
That's right, Mark,
 
  
 
Since the first UK edition used the period, I reinstated it for CUP even though subsequent English editions dropped it. (It's always been part of the US editions.)
 
  
 
A
 
  
 
On Thu, Feb 28, 2019 at 7:48 PM Mark Hussey via Vwoolf <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu> wrote:
 

The period is there in the first UK and US editions (according to Kirkpatrick and Clarke), but it seems often to be omitted on the dustjacket copy of various editions (e.g. the Shakespeare Head).
 
 
 
From: Vwoolf [mailto:vwoolf-bounces+mhussey=verizon.net at lists.osu.edu]On Behalf Of Catherine Hollis via Vwoolf
Sent: Thursday, February 28, 2019 6:56 PM
To: vwoolf listserve
Subject: [Vwoolf] Mrs. vs Mrs
 
 
 
Dear Woolfians,
 
 
 
There must have been discussion of this at some point that I am missing.
 
 
 
Is it Mrs. Dalloway (with the period) or Mrs Dalloway (without)? The Cambridge edition uses "Mrs." and the Hogarth Press edition uses "Mrs" -- is one preferred over the other?
 
 
 
Thanks for any help,
 
 
 
Catherine
 

-- 
 
Catherine W. Hollis, PhD
 
Instructor, Fall Program for Freshmen
 
U.C. Berkeley
 
Berkeley, CA 94720
 
hollisc at berkeley.edu
 
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-- 
 
Anne E. Fernald (she/her)
 
Professor of English and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
 
Special Advisor to the Provost for Faculty Development
 
fernald at fordham.edu
 
  
 
Rose Hill: Cunniffe 230
 
718-817-3312
 
  
 
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