Monday, November 25, 2013

¿CAN WE DO ALOTT5MA FRIDAY GRAMMAR RODEO ON MONDAYS?  Slate wants to know if the English language needs upside-down punctuation at the start of sentences. Or, you might shout,  ¡bad idea!

9 comments:

  1. Fred App11:03 AM

    Sometimes it seems like virtually every article in Slate aims to answer a question that no one is asking or to solve a problem that no one else thinks is really a problem.

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  2. Watts4:00 PM

    ¡IT STILL WON'T STOP ME FROM MY LOVE OF ALL-CAPS!

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  3. Joseph Finn5:01 PM

    Seriously Slate? With people still trying to spread the evils of single spacing between sentences and the Oxford "I need to rewrite for clarity" Comma, this is the one you spend time on? ¡Oy vey!

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  4. This might occasionally help me when I read aloud to my daughter, but otherwise, not so much. On the other hand, again on the reading aloud, could authors (of kids' books, anyway) not write sentences like the following anymore?

    "We will have our revenge," she whispered.

    Invariably, when reading aloud, I'll read it as "'WE WILL HAVE OUR REVENGE,' she
    -- oh, crap. So from here on in, if authors could put the cues up front? Kthanksbye.

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  5. This is Slate. They regularly let authors write pieces on such critical topics as whether eating outside sucks (yes, allegedly) and whether the Dorito Loco Tacos are the best thing since fire (ditto).

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  6. Joseph Finn5:06 PM

    Well, they're correct on the eating outside.

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  7. Joseph Finn5:07 PM

    So basically, you want kids books with stage notes?


    Actually, that's not a horrible idea at all. Books with stage notes for parents telling them how it should be read.

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  8. The Pathetic Earthling5:54 PM

    I prefer German where you can -- very often -- leave the verb until the very end of the sentence. Want to know what I'm talking about? Wait a damned minute and you'll find out. This is emphasis for the extremely impatient.

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  9. Marsha11:29 AM

    Wonder how pre-punctuation would affect uptalkers.

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