Yes it does - because these examples aren't acceptable English either!
Neither "watch's" nor "Rich's" are contractions, since they have the same
number of syllables as the originals "...watch is..." and "...Rich is...".
Some may even argue that they sound the same as well, so the only difference
here is a 'cosmetic' one of the way the examples are typed.
Mike
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Barrow" <davidab@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2003 5:03 PM
Subject: Re: CHAT: which's
> My watch's broken
> Rich's standing over there
>
> Which doesn't make which's any more grammatical
>
> David Barrow
>
> michael poxon wrote:
>
> > Er... if which's is a contraction, what's it a contraction of? It can't
be
> > the genitive, 'cause it ain't grammatical, and -/tSz/ or -/tSs/ isn't a
> > valid consonant cluster in English (not off the top of my head, anyway).
If
> > the sense intended is as in something like "The tree which is over
there" I
> > can't see this ever contracting. Most people would contract this
statement,
> > if at all, as "The tree that's over there". This 'which' type of
relative
> > construction seems to be disappearing.
> > Mike
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Arthaey Angosii" <arthaey@...>
> > To: <CONLANG@...>
> > Sent: Tuesday, February 25, 2003 6:17 PM
> > Subject: Re: CHAT: which's
> >
> > > Emaelivpaer Muke Tever:
> > > >But I think the restraint against /Ss/ prevents "which is" from ever
> > > >contracting at all.
> > >
> > > T'emaelivpar John Cowan:
> > > >"Which's" is never acceptable in standard English. [snip examples]
> > > >But the right thing for non-native speakers is simply never to use
it.
> > >
> > > Personally, I'm a contraction-happy sort of person, especially online.
If
> > > I'm not careful, I'd've had "'cause 'cept 'specially" in my postings
here,
> > > which's a bit of an overkill. ;)
> > >
> > > I think it just depends on context. If you look at my log files of IM
> > > chats, there are contractions everywhere. The more grammatically
"proper"
> > > I'm trying to be -- such as when writing less-spoken-English-like
e-mails
> > > -- I'll try to weed out some of the less standard contractions.
> > >
> > > "Which's" would count as very informal in my book, but still
acceptable.
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > AA