a semi-colon? as if!
G Daeb
that I must digress from perhaps the main thrust of a.u.e
in order to make relevant comment in uk.media.newspapers
We have a great one here, one I am actively asking for some
suggestions on any print-sector precedent for--the utterance
"as if".
I'm not sure if our local rag is permanently going to be up
against the morning titles - it looks like they'll have a job
on as they write the thing at the wrong time of day for that
market - or if it's just with schools' out for summer. But, it
is now a morning paper. Kind of. Though it used still to get
delivered late afternoon.
Despite when they're having a research-drive and have to
say "we always want to know what you're thinking" it seems
they often don't if they can't see what's in it for them.
Certainly I've been told if I don't like it then don't read.
But no. Today a columnist is aghast that he could have
used the "sentence" "As if." in his column last week and
nobody batted an eyelid!
Cue several inches of ignorant turgid drivel pre-occupied
with the notion there was a gold standard for grammar and
it was when he was at grammar school.
What it says to me is that grammar schools maybe didn't
work as they might--it wasn't the utterance in its context
that was either out of place, or indeed ungrammatical, but
the preceding full-stop, which could arguably have been
more accurately punctuated with a semi-colon or, brace
yourselves, an em-dash.
And that's only within journalistic conventions.
But there is another side to this coin--the use of idioms
given what time the title now hits the news-stands. Ever
seen an average person in the bus station at 8 AM? Many
can't lift their eyelids never mind bat them.
But seriously, unless we're about to start advancing the
notion that scriptwriting is one of the more remunerative
forms of illiteracy ("if only..." I hear some of you gasp), I
consider there must be a precedent in literature somewhere
for "As if!". Anyone here know what it is?
Still, I suppose his musings on how, 100 years ago, back
in the days of the gold standard of grammar, one could refer
to oneself as a racist whereas now one has to be called a
ethnodemographic anthropologist will keep those nasty old
vinegar-sour pedantic types sneering in their beers for the
rest of what remains of the summer.
Is there such a statue yet to fall from its feet of clay as the
journalist who doesn't believe in book learning? Though I
agree that he highlights a trend, in that truly up-to-date
research in all manner of fields from grammatology to
applied statistics is no longer available to the lay public
round our way as the trend in academic libraries has been
to move to on-line journals allied to courses' fees; to which
guests and associates have no access.
So maybe the very model of the Victorian Man-Of-The-
World with his bespoke library of obsolete research and
out-dated bestiaries isn't so very far away from 10 years
down the line. So, I shall have to dig out my H G Wells
shan't I.
But yeash, local rag vs national daily for breakfast? The
dailies win hands-down every time.
G DAEB
COPYRIGHT (C) 2009 SIPSTON
--
Philip Eden
> It is with some apologies, to news:alt.usage.english -izens,
> that I must digress from perhaps the main thrust of a.u.e
> in order to make relevant comment in uk.media.newspapers
>
> We have a great one here, one I am actively asking for some
> suggestions on any print-sector precedent for--the utterance
> "as if".
>
<snip>
>
> But no. Today a columnist is aghast that he could have
> used the "sentence" "As if." in his column last week and
> nobody batted an eyelid!
>
<snip>
>
> What it says to me is that grammar schools maybe didn't
> work as they might--it wasn't the utterance in its context
> that was either out of place, or indeed ungrammatical, but
> the preceding full-stop, which could arguably have been
> more accurately punctuated with a semi-colon or, brace
> yourselves, an em-dash.
>
<snip>
I used, "Oh, puhleeze!" in a column in the Sunday
Torygraph some 10-15 years ago, and the subs and the
editor at the time (one Lawson, D.) let it through. Those
were the days, of course, when the paper had proper subs.
Philip Eden
JimboCat
[snip all]
Nice! Approximately 80% lucid: keep up the good work, and you might
actually become readable some day.
As if! ;-)
Jim Deutch (JimboCat)
--
"how to make the best kinds of flies from chesse which drain the
phlegmatic humours from the coronary organ without gorging themselves
on the blood which it also helps circulate to the cooling organ of the
brain which in turn allows the spleen and stomach to get on with their
allotted functions of thinking" [SIPSTON]
Bohgosity BumaskiL
typically complete a sentence that begins with "as if". "He speaks as if
that might be true" is one way to make a complete sentence out of it. I read
it as something like "blah blah blah...NOT!", that came in vogue, here, due
to some "Saturday Night Live" skits. It is not a complete sentence. It is
like "Aw, bullshit." in speech, so I do not care for any history about any
exemplary rule breakage that might hav arisen. It is not a complete
sentence, so there is no standard way to punctuate it -- not that incomplete
sentences are always unclear. It is just that if you write one, then you are
open to criticism from any strict grammarian.
Bohgosity BumaskiL
that explain. I hav seen it written that it indicates contrast, though, so
maybe a semi-colon would fit the bill and allay concerns from grammarians.