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1、Eats,shoots&leavesThe Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation,byLynne Truss,2004,A panda walks into a caf.He orders a sandwich,eats it,then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.“Why?”asks the confused waiter,as the panda makes towards the exit.The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manu
2、al and tosses it over his shoulder.“Im a panda,”he says,at the door.“Look it up.”The waiter turns to the relevant entry and,sure enough,finds an explanation.“Panda.Large black-and-while bear-like mammal,native to China.Eats,shoots and leaves.”,To the memory of the striking Bolshevikprinters of St.Pe
3、tersburg who,in 1995,demanded to be paid the same rate forpunctuation marks as for letters,and therebydirectly precipitated the firstRussian Revolution,Punctuation is a system of printers marks that had aided the clarity of the written word for the past half-millennium,and if its time had come to be
4、 replaced,lets just use this moment to celebrate what an elegant and imaginative job it did while it had the chance.,Caring about matters of language is unfortunately generally associated with small-minded people,but that doesnt make it a small issue.,The Seventh Sense,“Come inside,for CDs,VIDEOs,DV
5、Ds,and BOOKs”“Two Weeks Notice”“Can you spare any old records”“eight items or less”“The judges decision is final”,While some people look in horror at a badly punctuated sign,the world carries on around us,blind for our plight.Those people are like the little boy in The Sixth Sense who can see dead p
6、eople,except that they can see dead punctuation.,Punctuation Defined,The basting that holds the fabric of language in shape.The traffic signals of language:they tell us to slow down,notice this,take a detour,and stop.The courtesy designed to help readers to understand a story without stumbling.The l
7、ine along which the train(composition,style,writing)must travel if it isnt to run away with its driver.,When punctuation is not used,Language come apart,obviously,and all the buttons fall off.Words bang into each other and everyone ends up in Minehead.A sentence no longer holds the door open for you
8、 to walk in,but drops it in your face as you approach.You and your writing will go off-line with your words dead and scattered around.,Punctuation marks are traditionally either“separators”or“terminators”.,Between Staunch and Flexible,Punctuation is being governed“Two-thirds by rule and one-third by
9、 personal taste”G.V.Carey,Mind the Stop,Cambridge University Press,1939,Examples,A woman without her man is nothingA woman,without her man,is nothingA woman:without her,man is nothing,Examples,It is under these circumstances that we feel constrained to call upon you to come to our aid should a distu
10、rbance arise here the circumstances are so extreme that we cannot but believe that you and the men under you will not fail to come to the rescue of people who are so situated.Put the period after the word“aid”once then after“here”and see the change in meaning.,Examples,“Charles the First walked and
11、talked half an hour after his head was cut off”“Charles the First walked and talked.Half an hour after,his head was cut off”,Why a cat is not a comma?,A cat has claws at the ends of its paws.A commas a pause at the end of a clause.,The Tractable Apostrophe,Means in Greek“turning away”and hence“omiss
12、ion”or“elision”In the 16th centuryFirst picked up and used to mark dropped lettersIn the 17th centuryIntruded before the“s”in singular possessive cases“the girls dress”In the 18th centuryPut after plural possessives as well“the girls dresses”,Apostrophes Tasks,Indicates a possessive Singular nounThe
13、 boys hatPlural without sThe childrens playgroundRegular pluralThe boys hats,Apostrophes Tasks,Indicates time or quantityIn one weeks timeIndicates omission of figures in datesThe summer of 68Indicates the omission of lettersWe cant go to JoburgIts your turnIts got very cold,The Contractive and the
14、Possessive,The rule is:the word“its”(with apostrophe)stands for“it is”or“it has”.If the word does not stand for“it is”or“it has”then what you require is“its”.Thank God its FridayThank God its Friday,No matter that you have a Ph.D.and have read all of Henry James twice.If you still persist in writing
15、,“Good food at its best”,you deserve to be struck by lightning,hacked up on the spot and buried in an unmarked grave.,Apostrophes Tasks,Features in Irish namesONeill and OCaseyThe O in the Irish names is an anglicisation of“ua”,meaning grandson.Indicates the plurals of lettersHow many fs are there i
16、n Fulham?,Apostrophes Tasks,Indicates plurals of wordsWhat are the dos and donts?Are there too many buts and ands at the beginning of sentences these days?,The Lifted Task,It no longer has to appear in the plurals abbreviations(“MPs”)or plural dates(“1980s”).,Apostrophes Tasks,Abolish the apostrophe
17、 and it will be necessary,before the hour is up,to reinvent it.,Thatll Do,Comma,Thurber and Ross“Why to you have a comma in the sentence,After dinner,the men went into the living room?”“This particular comma,was Rosss way of giving the men time to push back their chairs and stand up.”,“No dogs pleas
18、e”,Only one person in a thousand bothers to point out that actually the statement is an indefensible generalization,since many dogs do please.,Thatll Do,Comma,Means in Greek“a piece cut off”Adopted in the 16th centuryPurpose was to guide actors,chanters and readers-aloud indicating the pauses,accent
19、uating matters of sense and sound.Aldus Manutius the Elder invented the italic typeface and printed the first semicolon,Thatll Do,Comma,Aldus Manutius the Younger stated in 1566 that the main object of punctuation was the clarification of syntax.Two distinct functionIlluminate grammar of a sentenceP
20、oint up rhythm,direction,pitch,tone and flow.,Commas Tasks,Commas for listsThe four refreshing fruit flavors of Opal Fruits are orange,lemon,strawberry and lime.,Commas Tasks,The Oxford commaThe flag is red,white,and blueI went to the chemist,Marks&Spencer,and NatWest.They tell us to slow down,notic
21、e this,take a detour,and stop.(three or four instructions),Commas Tasks,List of AdjectivesUse the comma where an and would be appropriate.It was a dark,stormy night.He was a tall,bearded man.Do not use a comma forIt was an endangered white rhinoThe grand old Duke of York had ten thousand men.,Commas
22、 Tasks,Commas for joiningComplete sentences with conjunctions as and,or,but,while and yetThe boys wanted to stay up until midnight,but they grew tired and fell asleep.I thought I had the biggest bag of fruits,yet Cathy proved me wrong.,Commas Tasks,Commas before direct speechThe queen said,“Doesnt a
23、nyone know its my birthday?”Commas setting off interjectionsStop,or Ill scream.,Commas Tasks,Commas that come in pairs(weak interruption)I am,of course,going steadily nutsNicholas Nickleby,published in 1839,uses a great many commas.(should be removed)The leading stage director,Nicholas Hytner,has be
24、en appointed to the Royal National Theatre.,Commas Tasks,Important grammatical pointThe people in the queue who managed to get tickets were very satisfied.Some people did not get ticketsThe people in the queue,who managed to get tickets,were very satisfied.Everyone got tickets,A Grammatical Point,If
25、 the clause between the commas is“defining”,commas are not needed.The Highland Terries that live in our street arent cute at allThe Highland Terries,when they are barking,are a nightmare.,Commas Big Final Rule,Dont use commas like a stupid personLeonora walked on her head,a little higher than usual.
26、The driver managed to escape from the vehicle before it sank and swam to the river-bank.Dont guess,use a timer or watch.The convict said the judge is mad.,Airs and Graces The Colon and Semicolon,They are about expectation and elastic energy.Like internal springs,they propel you forward in a sentence
27、 towards more information.Semicolon lightly propels you in any direction related to the foregoing.The colon nudges you along lines already subtly laid down.,The Colon and Semicolon,The colon delivers the goods that have been invoiced in the preceding words.Tom has only one rule in life:never eat any
28、thing bigger than your head.I pulled out all the stops with kerry-Anne:I used a semicolon.I loved Opal fruits as a child:no one else did.You can do it:and you will do it.,The Colon and Semicolon,Man proposes:God disposes.I find fault with only three things in this story or yours,Jenkins:the beginnin
29、g,the middle and the end.Colons introduce the part of a sentence that exemplifies,restates,elaborates,undermines,explains or balances the preceding part.,The Colon and Semicolon,Colons start lists(especially lists using semicolons)They set off book and film sub-titles from the main titles:Ghandi II:
30、The Mahatma Strikes Back,The Colon and Semicolon,The main place for a semicolon is between two related sentences where there is no conjunction such as“and”or“but”.It was the baying of an enormous hound;it came from over there!I remember him when he couldnt write his own name on a gate;now hes Prime
31、Minister,Indispensable Semicolon,Fares were offered to Corfu,the Greek island;Morocco;Elba,in the Mediterranean;and Paris.Margaret thought about it.She had been to Elba once and found it dull;to Morocco,and found it too colorful.Special Policeman Semicolon(for comma fights),The Colon and Semicolon,S
32、ense changes with punctuationTom locked himself in the shed.England lost to Argentina.Tom locked himself in the shed;England lost to Argentina.Tom locked himself in the shed:England lost to Argentina.,Cutting a Dashexclamation mark,dash,italic,question mark,Exclamation mark is used to salute,admire,
33、emphasize,irony,e-mail salutations.Whereas a dash is used to connect(or separate)sentences,the hyphen is used to connect(or separate)individual words.Italics are used for,Titles of books,emphasis of certain words,foreign words,examples on language,Cutting a Dashexclamation mark,dash,italic,question
34、mark,Question mark is used when the question is direct.What is the capital of Belgium?What was the point of all this sudden interest in Brussels,he wondered.The ellipsis appears in e-mails and shorthand,meaning“more to come”.,Double Dashes,Bracketing deviceHe was(I still cant believe this!)trying to
35、 climb in the window.He was-I still cant believe this!-trying to climb in the window.Can you tell the difference?,Types,Shapes,Names of Brackets,Round brackets(called parentheses in US)Square brackets called brackets in USBrace brackets derived from mathsAngle brackets Angle shape the earliest to ap
36、pearBrackets(as for a bookshelf)lift up a section of the sentence,holding it above the rest.,Uses of Brackets,Add information,clarify,explain and illustrate.Starburst(formerly known as Opal Fruits)are available in all corner shops.Square brackets for clarifying direct quote,and enclosing ellipsisShe
37、 had used Tom Jones for far too many examples by this stage.,Ellipsis(or three dots),Very specific usesIndicate word missing from a quoted passageTrail off in a intriguing matte,A Little Used Mark(Hyphen),Name comes from the Greek.Uses of the hyphen,Avoid ambiguity(re-formed,re-mark)Spell out number
38、s(thirty-two,forty-nine)Link nouns with nouns(London-Brighton train)Link adjectives to adjectives(American-French relations)Noun phrase qualifies another noun(stainless-steel kitchen,corrugate-iron roof),A Little Used Mark(Hyphen),Uses of hyphen(continued)Certain prefixes(anti-Apartheid,quasi-steady
39、)Spell out certain words(K-E-Y-N-S-H-A-M)Avoid letter collision(de-ice,shell-like)Indicate unfinished word that continues on the next lineHesitation and stammering(I reached the w-w-w-w-watering can)Qualify a hyphenated phrase beforehand(He was a two-or three-year-old.),Merely Conventional Signs,Emo
40、tions are the proper name for smileys.:-)happy:-(sad;-)winking:-rtongue sticking:/mixed up:-)dunce(stupid):-pouting:-OsurpriseText message and verbal shorthand“CU B4 8?”,Computers,Reading and Writing,With text messaging and emailing becoming such compulsive universal activities,reading and writing a
41、re now more a fact of everyday life than they have ever been.“The human linguistic faculty seems to be in good shape.The arrival of Netspeak is showing us homo loquens at its best”David Crystal,A Last Word,Proper punctuation is both the sign and cause of clear thinking.We should fight like tigers to preserve punctuation,and we should start now.The purpose of punctuation is“to tango the reader into the pauses,inflections,continuities and connections that the spoken line would convey.”Thomas McCormack.,
