Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : SI Grammar and Spelling Lab -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Paul Senior who wrote (3713)	2/28/2001 2:52:08 PM
From: The Philosopher	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4711

In my personal view, punctuation is part of grammar, because the way you punctuate a sentence can have a significant impact on its meaning. Two sentences identical in word sequence can be very different sentences if punctuated differently. So I consider that part of the structure of the language. Joan may feel differently, and I usually defer to her expertise on matters of grammar. I normally don't caregorize rule violations by significance. If I did, I suspect I would consider as more serious those violations which affect the meaning of a sentence or abuse the definition of a word (such as interchanging infer and imply; I take this very seriously since it weakens the ability of language to be as precise as possible). Errors of number, for example, grate on my ear but there is usually no effect on the meaning of the sentence. Also, whether one says "he and I" or "him and me" normally doesn't interfere with your ability to understand exactly what the person is saying. So communication takes place accurately, though incorrectly. It annoys and distracts me, and makes me think the speaker less educated that I would like, but communication has happened accurately. But when, for example, you used the pronoun "it" in your first message without a clear antecedent, that interfered with the communication because you and I might have had very different senses of the antecedent you were intending. Take, for example: My dog Polly is at the vet's office. My dog, Polly, is at the vet's office. The first sentence is clear, though some background information isn't. It's not clear whether you have just one dog or several dogs. Not that it matters for this sentence. We know that you have at least one dog named Polly and that dog is at the vet's office . The second sentence isn't clear. Do you have a dog named Polly, or are you speaking to a person named Polly about your dog which for all we know might be called Barkis? So the use of this punctuation changes a clear sentence into an unclear sentence That's why I think punctuation is part of grammar, since it changes meaning. But I realize I rambled a bit in this response. Oh well.