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<big>The convention in French publishing is actually to leave a space
between the preceding word and the following colon, semi-colon, and the
question and exclamation marks. The quotation marks are also separated
from the quoted text by spaces. There should be no space between the
word and the comma or period. Herb should check whether his African
students are Francophone.</big><br>
<br>
Lynne Murphy wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:0B6DCBCAC4243627A13FF1E0@%5B192.168.1.3%5D"
type="cite">My French students put spaces before commas and periods.
I wonder if
<br>
French word-processors treat the space as non-breaking?
<br>
<br>
Lynne
<br>
<br>
<br>
Dr M Lynne Murphy
<br>
Senior Lecturer in Linguistics and English Language
<br>
Arts B135
<br>
University of Sussex
<br>
Brighton BN1 9QN
<br>
<br>
phone: +44-(0)1273-678844
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com">http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com</a>
<br>
<br>
<br>
--On Monday, April 28, 2008 7:04 pm -0400 Herb Stahlke
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:hfwstahlke@GMAIL.COM"><hfwstahlke@GMAIL.COM></a> wrote:
<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">I've found something like this fairly often
with students from Africa,
<br>
the Middle East, and, to a lesser extent, East Asia. A space before a
<br>
punctuation mark is less common that no space after one.The next
<br>
sentence,for example,begins immediately.
<br>
<br>
Herb
<br>
<br>
On Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 4:06 PM, Jonathan Lighter
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:wuxxmupp2000@yahoo.com"><wuxxmupp2000@yahoo.com></a> wrote:
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">---------------------- Information from the
mail header
<br>
----------------------- Sender: American Dialect Society
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:ADS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU"><ADS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU></a> Poster: Jonathan Lighter
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:wuxxmupp2000@YAHOO.COM"><wuxxmupp2000@YAHOO.COM></a>
<br>
<br>
Subject: Re: Consistent punctuation oddities
<br>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
<br>
--------
<br>
<br>
I had students who would do this - but surely fewer than half a dozen
<br>
out of many hundreds over many, many years. The error, of course, is
<br>
easily corrected, but the writers would always express amazement that
<br>
you can't start a line with a comma.
<br>
<br>
JL
<br>
<br>
<br>
Charles Doyle <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:cdoyle@UGA.EDU"><cdoyle@UGA.EDU></a> wrote:
<br>
---------------------- Information from the mail header
<br>
----------------------- Sender: American Dialect Society
<br>
Poster: Charles Doyle
<br>
<br>
Subject: Re: Consistent punctuation oddities
<br>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
<br>
--------
<br>
<br>
<br>
A few years ago I started noticing, in hand-written discussions, commas
<br>
placed at the beginning of a line rather than the end of the preceding
<br>
line/phrase. I doubt if students could have seen that practice in print
<br>
anywhere, and probably word-processing programs won't even permit it,
<br>
unless a space is inserted prior to the comma.
<br>
<br>
--Charlie
<br>
____________________________________________________________
<br>
<br>
---- Original message ----
<br>
> Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2008 09:28:58 -0400
<br>
> From: Grant Barrett
<br>
<br>
>
<br>
<br>
> Does anyone know of any work that has been done on the consistent
<br>
> nonstandard use of punctuation? Two not-so-rare usages come to
mind.
<br>
>
<br>
> 1. Space before periods and commas rather than after. "Money
,that
<br>
> devil substance ,is like heaven to some people .They have no idea
what
<br>
> hell is like ." Made up example, though I see this sort of thing
in
<br>
> emails to the radio show that I'm reluctant to quote here without
the
<br>
> correspondents' permission.
<br>
>
<br>
> 2. Using commas instead of apostrophes. "I,ve done extensive
research
<br>
> but I,m looking for the actual law." Real example posted today to
my
<br>
> web site
<br>
>
<br>
> What most interests me is if there's any kind of rationalization
for
<br>
> this punctuation. Did they teach themselves to type and that's
the way
<br>
> they've always done it? Do they think it looks better? Are they
typing
<br>
> on a foreign keyboard? Are they unaware that it's different than
the
<br>
> way most people do it? Something else?
<br>
>
<br>
<br>
> Thanks, in any case.
<br>
>
<br>
> Grant Barrett
<br>
> <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:gbarrett@worldnewyork.org">gbarrett@worldnewyork.org</a>
<br>
> 113 Park Place, Apt. 3
<br>
> Brooklyn, NY 11217
<br>
> (646) 286-2260
<br>
<br>
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</blockquote>
</blockquote>
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</blockquote>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
**********************************************************
Salikoko S. Mufwene <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:s-mufwene@uchicago.edu">s-mufwene@uchicago.edu</a>
Frank J. McLoraine Distinguished Service Professor
University of Chicago 773-702-8531; FAX 773-834-0924
Department of Linguistics
1010 East 59th Street
Chicago, IL 60637, USA
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://humanities.uchicago.edu/faculty/mufwene">http://humanities.uchicago.edu/faculty/mufwene</a>
**********************************************************
</pre>
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