[lg policy] Let's eat grandpa: why punctuation isn't a matter of life and death, even in the law.

[Baron, Dennis E]

There’s a new post on the Web of Language:

Let's eat grandpa: why punctuation isn't a matter of life and death, even in the law. On the Web of Language: http://bit.ly/2ncLDvW <https://t.co/TbOkNlol7z>


There’s a pedant at my university who likes to stand on the Quad, wave a grammar book at passers-by, and warn them that a comma can mean the difference between life and death. He or she points an accusing finger at some poor soul and makes them fix the commas in their term paper.

You’d better get those commas right, pedants like to warn, because “Commas save lives,” an eternal truth they illustrate with the life-and-death Parable of the Dinner Guest:

    (1) Let’s eat, grandpa.

    (2) Let’s eat grandpa.

Don’t let the pedants sucker you with their scary comma talk. There is no one in their right mind who reads the second example as an invitation to cannibalism.

Read the whole post on the Web of Language:  http://bit.ly/2ncLDvW <https://t.co/TbOkNlol7z>
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