Please don’t think me a sore loser.

As you may have heard, the University of Minnesota has decided to name its new 2,300-foot walkway "the Scholars Walk" rather than "the Scholars’ Walk."

Am I sore that the planning committee solicited my advice and then disregarded it? Of course not.

But what troubles me is that the question apparently wasn’t decided on the basis of grammar. Instead, there were vague arguments about how the scholars didn’t actually own the walk; it was just being named for them. Reasonable enough. But one could make the same case for "the Children Hospital."

Apparently lacking was any discussion of possession beyond our everyday understanding of it, as in "That’s my book. It belongs to me."

As a grammatical construct, the possessive case indicates not just ownership but also relationship, and relationship is a broader concept, as illustrated by the phrases "a good day’s work" and "one week’s notice." Should we call it "a good day work" because it was we who did the work, not the day, or "one week notice" because it is we who must give notice, not the week? I think not.

I recognize that the trend is to omit the apostrophe, but I believe the trend is part of a larger movement toward less punctuation generally (particularly on signs) and so don’t consider it instructive.

Likewise, there is a tendency to treat a phrase as descriptive rather than possessive as the phrase becomes more common and idiomatic, as in "teachers manual." But "Scholars’ Walk," unlike "Regents Professor," is not a common phrase.

Perhaps a low point in the debate was reached when the apostrophe-free Vietnam Veterans Memorial was cited as a precedent for omitting the apostrophe.

I ask you, does it make sense for an educational institution to follow the lead of the government in matters of rigorous inquiry and precise communication? Shouldn’t it be the other way around?

A case in point: Several years ago when I renewed my driver’s license, I noticed that the phrase was spelled "driver’s license" in one place on my renewal notice and "drivers license" in another. When I went to the office to have my picture taken, I saw a sign that read "driver license."

With that example in mind, perhaps we should just throw in the towel and call it "Scholar Walk." Likewise, we could have a women club. I wonder what the women basketball team would think about that.

But as the board’s chief executive officer, Larry Laukka, who also found himself on the losing side of the argument, declared, "This was more fun than anything . . . I’ll get over it," and so will I.

So let’s end the debate. Let’s set aside all the talk about correct punctuation and the need for educational institutions to uphold standards, and let’s be happy with what we have: a beautiful walkway honoring the University’s scholars.

Indicating possession can be tricky. For one thing, there’s more than one way to do it.

You can place a ring around somebody’s finger, sign your name to a document, or simply holler, "Hey, that’s mine!"

You also have options in writing. You can use a possessive pronoun, as in his knitting needle and her screwdriver; insert an apostrophe or an apostrophe s after the person or thing showing possession, as in Kathy’s promotion and the cat’s meow; or construct a phrase beginning with the preposition of, as in the handle of the screwdriver.

Sometimes it’s hard to know if you’re dealing with a possessive or a descriptive phrase. For example, the customer’s complaint is possessive because the customer owns the complaint, whereas savings account is descriptive (and so is spelled without an apostrophe) because savings describes account.

But sometimes there’s no rhyme or reason to our conventions. According to the dictionary, Presidents’ Day is spelled with an apostrophe, but Veterans Day is not. Go figure.

When you find yourself in a quandary – is it girls basketball team or girls’ basketball team? – use this handy technique from William Sabin’s The Gregg Reference Manual:

"Try substituting an irregular plural like women. You wouldn’t say the women basketball team; you would say the women’s basketball team. By analogy, the girls’ basketball team is correct."

Pretty nifty, don’t you think? Let’s apply it to an example from a reader, who wrote to me about "a small controversy" on the University of Minnesota campus:

"I am a volunteer alumnus and chair of the Scholars’ Walk, a pedestrian way, currently under construction, connecting the McNamara Alumni Center to the Mall. We are drafting an inscription/placard which will identify and explain the walk and its benefactors.

"There are some who argue that the walk, which is being put in place to honor many of our great scholars, should be labeled without an apostrophe because it is a walk of scholars and therefore not possessive. Others argue that it is a pedestrian way which recognizes scholars and therefore it is theirs – a Scholars’ Walk.

"We wish, of course, to get it right, lest a Nobel laureate come by and take us to task."

So how would you respond to this query? Would you say a women walk or a women’s walk? Here’s my response:

"In some cases the difference between a descriptive phrase and a possessive form is slight. If it’s a close call, err on the side of using an apostrophe.

"A second reason to treat Scholars’ Walk as a possessive form is to avoid ambiguity. Why draw attention to the fact that scholars walk, when scholars read, scholars write, and scholars publish, among other things? To omit the apostrophe would be to invite the inevitable jokes."

Well, the 2,300-foot walk is taking shape, and I think it’s quite attractive. This week, however, on my way to the university’s rec center I was dismayed to notice Scholars Walk on a construction sign.

I anxiously await the spelling on the permanent plaque.