Periods after abbreviations

[Page Stephens]

Slightly off topic but I always refer to another historical incident in the
poem. My version goes as follows:

In fourteen hundred and ninety two
Ferdinand and Isabella expelled the Jew.

You can look it up.

Page Stephens

----- Original Message -----
From: "Lynne Murphy" <M.L.Murphy at SUSSEX.AC.UK>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2004 6:29 AM
Subject: Re: Periods after abbreviations


> ---------------------- Information from the mail
header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Lynne Murphy <M.L.Murphy at SUSSEX.AC.UK>
> Subject:      Re: Periods after abbreviations
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
>
> --On Monday, June 28, 2004 2:49 pm -0400 Duane Campbell
<dcamp911 at JUNO.COM>
> wrote:
>
> > On Mon, 28 Jun 2004 14:13:03 -0400 Damien Hall
> > <halldj at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU> writes:
> >
> >> For me, prescriptively, if I might be so bold, no abbreviation
> >> should have a
> >> period after it unless that period actually replaces letters, so
> >> correct forms
> >> are:
> >>
> >> Ms      [etc]
> >
> > Perhaps this is just to counterbalance the Brits' compulsive overuse of
> > commas.
>
> ????  In my experience, Brits hardly use commas at all!!  Unlike
Americans,
> they don't use them before 'and' in lists, and, again unlike Americans,
> they tend not to use them in pre-sentential adjuncts.  So British:
>
> In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
>
> And (at least my!) American style:
>
> In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
>
> I have a horrible time parsing my students' essays for this reason, but
> I've learnt not to correct them on this point.  Like American students,
> though, they love to put commas between long subjects and verbs (the
'where
> you pause' rule of comma-putting), which I do correct mercilessly.
>
> Lynne
>
> Dr M Lynne Murphy
> Lecturer in Linguistics
>
> Department of Linguistics and English Language
> Arts B133
> University of Sussex
> Falmer
> Brighton BN1 9QN
> >From UK:  (01273) 678844
> Outside UK: +44-1273-678844