Karen Conlin on Nostr: #GUMmyStuff An interesting tidbit I learned from Yagoda's book THE SOUND ON THE PAGE: ...
#GUMmyStuff
An interesting tidbit I learned from Yagoda's book THE SOUND ON THE PAGE:
Regarding the use of punctuation to aid in what he calls "subvocalization," what we do when we read silently (with or without moving our lips), he points out that in the 18th and into the 19th century, a comma separating a complex* subject from a verb was "universally used . . . but is now considered incorrect." Its only purpose was to aid in silent reading, not for
"grammar or sense."
The example given: All the students who happen to arrive at school early, should report to the auditorium.
Today's copy editors routinely remove such a comma. Now that I know it was once common, I choose to believe that those writers using it now are reincarnations of writers from that time. I'll still correct it to current usage, but at least I won't be as upset at its existence.
*Yagoda incorrectly calls it a "compound" subject. It's clear from the example, though, that "complex" is what's meant. (A compound subject would be "All students and staff members," and if that were expanded to fit the example given, it would be compound complex: "All students and staff members who happen to arrive at school early" is a dependent clause.)
Editors aren't necessarily grammarians. Sometimes, that matters.
An interesting tidbit I learned from Yagoda's book THE SOUND ON THE PAGE:
Regarding the use of punctuation to aid in what he calls "subvocalization," what we do when we read silently (with or without moving our lips), he points out that in the 18th and into the 19th century, a comma separating a complex* subject from a verb was "universally used . . . but is now considered incorrect." Its only purpose was to aid in silent reading, not for
"grammar or sense."
The example given: All the students who happen to arrive at school early, should report to the auditorium.
Today's copy editors routinely remove such a comma. Now that I know it was once common, I choose to believe that those writers using it now are reincarnations of writers from that time. I'll still correct it to current usage, but at least I won't be as upset at its existence.
*Yagoda incorrectly calls it a "compound" subject. It's clear from the example, though, that "complex" is what's meant. (A compound subject would be "All students and staff members," and if that were expanded to fit the example given, it would be compound complex: "All students and staff members who happen to arrive at school early" is a dependent clause.)
Editors aren't necessarily grammarians. Sometimes, that matters.