‘A punctuation paradigm is shifting’, says Professor Yagoda.

Comments

1. Rachel says

   November 10, 2012 at 10:19 am

   You get the same thing in French punctuation. It does sort of make more sense.

   But so does the metric system, by some people’s lights. And I still cling to inches, feet, and miles.

   Reply
   • Angelico Nguyen, Esq., OP says

     November 10, 2012 at 10:51 am

     Daniel Mitsui on ‘anti-metrication’:

     http://www.danielmitsui.com/hieronymus/index.blog?entry_id=1825795

     Reply
     • Matthew Lickona says

       November 10, 2012 at 10:59 am

       I’m pretty sure that when Mitsui draws Nguyen, some sort of prophecy is going to be fulfilled.

       Reply
       • Angelico Nguyen, Esq., OP says

         November 10, 2012 at 11:03 am

         I am not the messiah!

         I’m a very naughty boy!

         Reply
         • Quin Finnegan says

           November 18, 2012 at 2:56 pm

           Regarding the link to Mitsui on Standards, I’ve always liked what Wittgenstein had to say on the subject of standards:

           “There is one thing of which one can say neither that it is one metre long, nor that it is not one metre long, and that is the standard metre in Paris. But this is, of course, not to ascribe any extraordinary property to it, but only to mark its peculiar role in the language-game of measuring with a metre-rule.” (PI§50)

           In other words, the Standard Metre in Paris is one meter long because ‘one meter’ is the length of the Standard Metre in Paris.

           Likewise for commas outside of quotation marks, or double quotation marks to signify spoken words rather than single quotation marks. Or maybe there really is something logical about excluding them from within the marks?

           Are aesthetic criteria not real enough for the continuance of a perfectly respectable tradition?

           Are the scribblings provided by the junior staff writers for the Conan O’Brien show not evidence enough for the establishment (I mean acceptance!) of an priori truth in the matter of logical punctuation?

           Reply