Consistent punctuation oddities

[LanDi Liu]

Almost all of my students (in China) do that.  They seem surprised
when I tell them that there are rules about things like that.  And I'm
surprised that given the volumes of English stuff they read, they
don't notice that you're supposed to put the comma next to the
preceding word, and put a space after it.  I'm sure I've seen well
over a thousand students do that.  I've seen the comma/apostrophe
thing too, but not very often.

Randy

On Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 9:28 PM, Grant Barrett
<gbarrett at worldnewyork.org> wrote:
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>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>  Poster:       Grant Barrett <gbarrett at WORLDNEWYORK.ORG>
>  Subject:      Consistent punctuation oddities
>  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>  Does anyone know of any work that has been done on the consistent
>  nonstandard use of punctuation? Two not-so-rare usages come to mind.
>
>  1. Space before periods and commas rather than after. "Money ,that
>  devil substance ,is like heaven to some people .They have no idea what
>  hell is like ." Made up example, though I see this sort of thing in
>  emails to the radio show that I'm reluctant to quote here without the
>  correspondents' permission.
>
>  2. Using commas instead of apostrophes. "I,ve done extensive research
>  but I,m looking for the actual law." Real example posted today to my
>  web site
>
>  What most interests me is if there's any kind of rationalization for
>  this punctuation. Did they teach themselves to type and that's the way
>  they've always done it? Do they think it looks better? Are they typing
>  on a foreign keyboard? Are they unaware that it's different than the
>  way most people do it? Something else?
>
>  Thanks, in any case.
>
>  Grant Barrett
>  gbarrett at worldnewyork.org
>  113 Park Place, Apt. 3
>  Brooklyn, NY 11217
>  (646) 286-2260
>
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--
Randy Alexander
Jilin City, China

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