Andreas, Thanks for the link to shadycharacters: It's just astounding that his post on the pilcrow drew so many comments, which likely means that there are more than just a small few who are concerned about the 'roots' of the 'trees' in our forest. I had just acquired Maryanne Wolf's "Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain." Upon learning of the 'ox-turning' I immediately, to my disappointment, looked in the index, hoping to find a reference there. Unfortunately not. But thanks to you, I have indeed learned a few things that may already lend me a heightened perspective on what she DOES include.
Barry On 8/10/2011 7:33 AM, Andreas Vox wrote: > Gregory Pittman<gregp_ky at ...> writes: > > ... >> There are a number of typographical insertions which indeed can be overused: >> > ... >> >> 3. excessive use of commas. This is something that clearly has been a >> moving target over time. If you look at books from the 18th, 19th, and >> early 20th centuries, they are used in great abundance, separating any >> collection of words that might be interpreted as a phrase, modifier, or >> anything outside of a simple sentence structure. I think things are >> coming around to the idea that you should read a comma as inserting a >> short pause for the reader, so that if a pause is clearly necessary, >> then probably a comma should be inserted, but if it makes just as much >> sense without a pause, then omit it. > > Which is in fact the reason why comma, colon and period where invented > in the first place: > http://www.shadycharacters.co.uk/2011/02/the-pilcrow-part-1/ > > This is a very interesting blog, make sure you check out other shady > characters like at-sign, ampersand, interobang and octothorpe, too! :-) > > /Andreas > > > ___ > Scribus Mailing List: scribus at lists.scribus.net > Edit your options or unsubscribe: > http://lists.scribus.net/mailman/listinfo/scribus > See also: > http://wiki.scribus.net > http://forums.scribus.net >
