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Saturday, December 09, 2006

Grammar

Double spaces at the beginning of sentences is for weenies and momma's boys. Real men use one space like god intended. Get a proportional font, Luddite. If you have to use a monospaced font, deal with one space. The "rivers" will not kill you, I am sorry that you can not see that a period ends a sentence.

The semicolon is a valid punctuation mark. If you think that it should never be used you are bovine. The fact that you never use them correctly is not a valid arguement against their use. Smart people get privileges, and semicolons are one of them.

These are not really directed at anyone. In general, I find grammar nazis on par with Hitler (not really Hitler, cuz he was a big dick and actually killed people instead of wasting my time). I am on the description side of linguistics, and prescriptors are just emulating the French.

Let the silly debates continue!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Shouldn't we be using computers like typewriters though? Without that extra space, an uneven stroke of the period might mislead the reader into thinking the next capital letter demarked a proper noun.

Even though computer systems seldom drop periods and most typesetting systems automatically space sentences, this is, I think, a tradition worth preserving - by force if necessary.

Other perversions we must never let fade:

* punctuation within quotation marks

* answering negative questions with 'no' when we mean 'yes' (i.e. "Don't you want more chips and salsa?" "no, I don't want more chips and salsa.")

* Third person singular possessive dilemma: "their" is just a cop-out for "his or her" and everybody knows it.

Damn anyone that thinks language should adapt to the minds that use it.

--kerrmudgeon