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| Comment | By | Date |
A sign in a local diner reads: Try "Our" Coffee. As if it's a joke, that the coffee is imposter... [MORE] |
Captain Spaulding |
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Using quotation marks all over the place on signs for no good reason at all was a habit of shopkeepers... [MORE] |
Matthijs |
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I agree with the author that quotation marks have somehow morphed into bold face. When I look up something in... [MORE] |
Bob in Oregon |
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I used to be an insufferable snob about "verbing" nouns until I started working with early English books. Turns out... [MORE] |
D.J. Leslie |
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I don't know if anyone else has commented on the last sentence in your column, Mr. McWhorter, but my strongest... [MORE] |
Janan |
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Actually, my opinion differs, I believe there is an emphasis on the "A" to emphasis the singular, as opposed to... [MORE] |
Sean F |
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This is completely true. It was in the editorial of the first issue of a para-professional trade periodical. The author... [MORE] |
steve hunt |
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People who 'verb' nouns and 'noun' verbs probably have other disgusting habits as well. I try not to associate with... [MORE] |
Burt Kaufman |
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I agree with everything John McWhorter has said but I'm still not as sanguine about the security of standard written... [MORE] |
Tedd McHenry |
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This article is the perfect forum for me to present my pet peeve: the complete abandonment of the past and... [MORE] |
Sean F |
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Heheh, yeah, I'm proud of my multi-pun. :) I first would like to point out that quotation marks never specifically denote... [MORE] |
Alan |
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John McWhorter, linguist, has one "very interesting" sentence -- diagram this one, even if you accept the barbarism "different ...... [MORE] |
Clifford Huffman |
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"Walking the streets of New York , nothing cheers me up like signs written under the impression that quotation marks... |
Lahoucine Ouzgane |
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An interesting little piece on a phenomenon that I've noticed myself many times over the years. I always thought that... [MORE] |
George Higgs |
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The bizarre habit of using quotation marks for emphasis has been around for decades, and not just in semi-literate signage.... [MORE] |
Carl Tait |
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In Shakespeare's day they were used to convey emphasis, and italics (like those I just used) were used to indicate... [MORE] |
william flesch |
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It's an ineresting article which could be better - but I don't have the patience to correct Mr.McWhorter's own grammar... [MORE] |
John Newton |
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This use of quotes is old. I've seen them on menus and pizza boxes all my life. Oftentimes they CAN... [MORE] |
Bob Byrne |
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Are the quotation marks around Eat, Shoots, and Leaves tounge in cheek? Shouldn't book titles be italicised or underlined? [MORE] |
Stuart Swirsky |
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Quotation marks have long been misused and maligned. As a teenager in the 1970s, I used to walk home from... [MORE] |
John Moore |
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Now I know what the signs mean when I see "'No' Parking - 'Don't even think about it!!!'", and "'No'... [MORE] |
Fred Nicol |
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There are now legions of people who have an alternate conception of what quotation marks are used for, using it... [MORE] |
Sharni Jayawardena |
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How helpful of the Sun to hyperlink America, Shakespeare, and the Wall Street Journal. Those terms might need explanation to... [MORE] |
Tess Tosterone |
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Fascinating! Why not set out on a course to write about as many misuses of our language and grammar as... [MORE] |
Bob Neal |
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"Thus I can wrap my head around why someone would advertise their restaurant..." Is this a case of a descriptive linguist... [MORE] |
Christopher Thomas |
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There used to be a sign above the entrance to a Chinese restaurant in the suburban community where I lived:... [MORE] |
judy kinney |
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This non-standard use of quotation marks reminds me of the consistent use of something like French on Midwestern menus. I've... [MORE] |
Larry ten Harmsel |
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Mr. McWhorter correctly observes that a somewhat odd and semi-literate use of quotation marks seems to be spreading across the... [MORE] |
richard beck |
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Most language is imitative, not rationally learned. Three possible inspirations for this usage: (1) Movies and books are often promoted with... [MORE] |
carolyn wolff |
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I've puzzled over this for decades, ever since I saw a sign in a Colorado cafe that said "Watch your... [MORE] |
Bill Marvel |
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I agree that written and spoken language change - otherwise we'd all be able to read past writings like Chaucer... [MORE] |
Harry Shannon |
Comment on Conveying Emphasis
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