Tag Archives: grammar

comma, period, semicolon cancer

Language equalizes into self-ref. It’s its own referee. Look at Language’s resume- all the references are itself. Grammar and I stand back and watch the parade.

You can’t escape language. We build buildings and construction workers rearrange dirt and put commas where, they seem, fitting. And the period. We shall stop. Or so we have been invited to. Unless you think decimally with your 99.2% accuracy. When that dot becomes the antonym of a period- a green light- we no longer need to sit in traffic and wait intersections no longer matter we can flow together joined by a nonstop joyride until we strike something a brick wall a solid force as we approach with thunderous speeds the vehicle is demolished this vehicle is language and we have found our dead end with signs to mark our final stop;

“unnecessary” quotation marks

I’m not a grammar Nazi, but I thought this was funny and educational “in one fell swoop.”

Necessary use of quotes include

– demarcating speech: “Yo Dawg,” said Rover.
– sarcasm or ironic references, often said with intonation or with the help of air quotes.
– Use–mention, noting the word itself rather than concept or meaning: “Uke” may have originated as a shortened form of “ukelele.”
– Titles: I repeatedly listened to the Beach Boys’ “I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times” 12 times.

Other times they are used for emphasizing words, when more accurately underlining, italicizing, highlighting, or even circling may be less ambiguous to the intentions.

I’ll let you wear my “clean” clothes.

This could imply you are lending not-so-clean clothes. Or that “clean” has a different meaning than expected. Think about the importance of a place that has “AIDS free” needles! Hah.

Get your “kicks” on “Route 66” over at “http://quotation-marks.blogspot.com/