Re: OT: Who said it?

["Patricia M. Godfrey" priscamg@xxxxxxxx]

David Auerbach wrote:
> I don't like to count quote marks, as used above, as punctuation.
> (Although it is an interesting question: what is punctuation?). Either
> quotes are a functor (taking a word to its name) or a device for forming
> names of expressions.
First, all copy editors consider quotation marks to be
punctuation marks. BUT many prefer to use italics to
set off a single word or a phrase when discussing
grammar, syntax, semantics, or the like. Were I copy
editing that passage, all the hads would have been in
itals. Or at most in single quotes (often used in
linguistic contexts). The primary purpose of quotation
marks is to set off exact quotations.
> A totally different sort of example (but it leapt to mind), are those
> old that show how our brains treat center-embedding differently from
> left-emedding:
> Men shoot   (grammatical and understandable when spoken)
> Men men shoot shoot (grammatical and understandable when spoken)
> Men men men shoot shoot shoot (grammatical and brow-wrinkling)
Yes, but this is only confusing in a language like
English, French, or Spanish that has lost most of its
noun inflections. Again, perfectly clear in Latin or
German or any other inflected language.
--
Patricia M. Godfrey
PriscaMG@xxxxxxxx