Consistent punctuation oddities

Tue Apr 29 17:07:40 UTC 2008

At 4/29/2008 12:21 PM, Salikoko Mufwene wrote:
>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.

How do the word processors and typesetting systems ensure that the
colon (etc.) are not widowed at the beginning of a line?

Joel

>Lynne Murphy wrote:
>>My French students put spaces before commas and periods.  I wonder if
>>French word-processors treat the space as non-breaking?
>>
>>Lynne
>>
>>
>>Dr M Lynne Murphy
>>Senior Lecturer in Linguistics and English Language
>>Arts B135
>>University of Sussex
>>Brighton BN1 9QN
>>
>>phone: +44-(0)1273-678844
>><http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com>http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com
>>
>>
>>
>>--On Monday, April 28, 2008 7:04 pm -0400 Herb Stahlke
>><mailto:hfwstahlke at GMAIL.COM><hfwstahlke at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>>
>>>I've found something like this fairly often with students from Africa,
>>>the Middle East, and, to a lesser extent, East Asia.  A space before a
>>>punctuation mark is less common that no space after one.The next
>>>sentence,for example,begins immediately.
>>>
>>>Herb
>>>
>>>On Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 4:06 PM, Jonathan Lighter
>>><mailto:wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com><wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>>----------------------- Sender:       American Dialect Society
>>>>  <mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU><ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter
>>>>  <mailto:wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM><wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
>>>>
>>>>Subject:      Re: Consistent punctuation oddities
>>>>  -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>  --------
>>>>
>>>>  I had students who would do this - but surely fewer than half a dozen
>>>>  out of many hundreds over many, many years. The error, of course, is
>>>>  easily corrected, but the writers would always express amazement that
>>>>  you can't start a line with a comma.
>>>>
>>>>   JL
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>  Charles Doyle <mailto:cdoyle at UGA.EDU><cdoyle at UGA.EDU> wrote:
>>>>   ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>>   ----------------------- Sender: American Dialect Society
>>>>  Poster: Charles Doyle
>>>>
>>>>Subject: Re: Consistent punctuation oddities
>>>>  -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>  --------
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>A few years ago I started noticing, in hand-written discussions, commas
>>>>placed at the beginning of a line rather than the end of the preceding
>>>>line/phrase. I doubt if students could have seen that practice in print
>>>>anywhere, and probably word-processing programs won't even permit it,
>>>>unless a space is inserted prior to the comma.
>>>>
>>>>  --Charlie
>>>>  ____________________________________________________________
>>>>
>>>>  ---- Original message ----
>>>>  > Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2008 09:28:58 -0400
>>>>  > From: Grant Barrett
>>>>
>>>>  >
>>>>
>>>> > 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
>>>>  > <mailto:gbarrett at worldnewyork.org>gbarrett at worldnewyork.org
>>>>  > 113 Park Place, Apt. 3
>>>>  > Brooklyn, NY 11217
>>>>  > (646) 286-2260
>>>>
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>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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>>
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>
>--
>**********************************************************
>Salikoko S.
>Mufwene
><mailto:s-mufwene at uchicago.edu>s-mufwene at uchicago.edu
>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
><http://humanities.uchicago.edu/faculty/mufwene>http://humanities.uchicago.edu/faculty/mufwene
>**********************************************************
>
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