Discussion of the day - that apostrophe?

[CJCregg]

Look to the right. 'Fashion victims - vile noughties' trends?'

Right or wrong? I'm struggling with it. Yes, it's 'trends of the noughties' but I'm not convinced.

Am I taking pedantry to a new level, am I crazy or just plain wrong?

I feel it is superfluous. Wouldn't you write, 'vile nineties trend'?

like, er... I will think of a better example... hang on...

I tend to agree with you. It would be, for example, "vile Hollywood trends" rather than "vile Hollywood's trends". Need to think about this further...

Funny one, isn't it? And difficult to come up with other examples. The one I thought of was 'vile French trends' but that's not helping either.

Thanks for replying, lovely pedants!

noughties' is obviously wrong - it changes the meaning from the intended "vile trends of the noughties" to "trends of the vile noughties".

You could write "noughties' vile trends", but "vile naughties trends" is also OK.

Note that in this last phrase, naughites is an adjectival noun, or noun adjunct, whereas in all the others it is a (posessive) noun. Where a clause is structured with an adjective followed by two nouns, the adjective attaches itself to the first noun. With two words acting as adjectives and only one noun, clearly that noun is the one that both describe.

Think of the difference between "a large elephant gun" and "a large elephant's gun".

Thanks, MrA.