(From the ether-nol, 2008)
(Clip art comes into its own in Blogger!)Lynne Truss, in her book Eats, Shoots and Leaves, gives some examples of how comma omissions (or additions) can make a big difference to the sense of a sentence. Here are a couple of examples:
Eat here, and get gas
Eat here and get gas
Slow, children crossing
Slow children crossing
These sentences (or clauses) raise some questions for us, don't they?
Can we purchase gas and get some food as well? Or does this refer to a grubby restaurant which serves lots of cabbage?
Can we purchase gas and get some food as well? Or does this refer to a grubby restaurant which serves lots of cabbage?
Should you reduce your speed because there are likely to be lots of children crossing (perhaps near a school) or are the kids just dragging their feet?
A comma can make a world of difference!
Perhaps you can think of some examples where the omission of a comma (or addition) can lead to altered meaning in a sentence?
Note: Australian's never use the term 'gas' when they refer to fuel. We always say 'petrol' (unless it's in reference to those cars which run on LPG Gas). Oh, and Aussies have 'wind' not 'gas' after eating baked beans.
3 comments:
Many thanks to Dr Judy Ford for pointing us to Lynne's book!
"Australian's never use the term 'gas' when they refer to fuel."
We've noticed the above foray, so okay let's parley.
:)
Yes, I'm here from the Ministry of Superfluous Punctuation, assigned to vacuum up all unnecessary diacritical marks - and I'll just sweep up that little erroneous apostrophe and tuck it away with the others - good lord! Where can we possibly stow it? '''''''''''''' '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' etc etc ad fellatio
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