there's another angle:
"its own way": the possessive should "logically" be it's, not its which we
were taught to use. I'm not saying that what's logical should necessarily
determine usage. obviously it doesn't. but sometimes logic refreshes. who
says that what we were taught should remain unquestioned, undeconstructed
(if you'll pardon the expression)?. language and it's grammar are not
unconfusing and they are not dead? when you leave the halls of elite power,
and even within them, language is found to be constantly re-inventing
itself, breaking the law and "establishing" new laws, at almost every turn.
there is, in fact, a great variety of mutually conflicting "usages" out
there, out here: the stuff of "divine evolution". long live change and
difference. our keel (which we must constantly rediscover and repair) will
keep us from capsizing. it might be a good thing that most folks on the
planet are not so "well-taught". when will educators liberate themselves
from the rules so that they may be more useful in the liberation of their
students. or is educating not primarily about liberating?
Daniel
feeling like you have to not make mistakes doesn't do wonders for free
uninhibited un-uptight expression.