Cart
[Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries]
At 09:11 AM 6/3/2008, it was written:
Ahem .... The text is a debate about comma usage in English prose. The subtext is some playful banter between myself, David Carlisle, and Michael Kay, who have been writing to one another on this list for going on ten years now. They know (as many list readers may not) that they are British and I am American, but also that I have read more than my share of British prose, having received an advanced degree in the subject (albeit from an American university). Accordingly, while I may sometimes be guilty of defending and even using the Oxford/Harvard comma, this is probably not due to my nationality. It turns up in British prose not infrequently, especially before the 20th century; I probably get it from Carlyle and Ruskin as much as from Emerson. If we were really interested in the topic (as opposed to busy pulling each other's chains), I might have pointed this out to David, who first called it a trans-atlantic peversion (whatever he might mean by that). "An archaic usage more commonly retained in America" would be a more accurate description. We all know (although, as an American, I hesitate to speak for my British colleagues) that the thread is way off topic, and has undoubtedly gone on too long. Cheers, Wendell ====================================================================== Wendell Piez mailto:wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Mulberry Technologies, Inc. http://www.mulberrytech.com 17 West Jefferson Street Direct Phone: 301/315-9635 Suite 207 Phone: 301/315-9631 Rockville, MD 20850 Fax: 301/315-8285 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Mulberry Technologies: A Consultancy Specializing in SGML and XML ======================================================================
|
