learnedax ([personal profile] learnedax) wrote2006-05-22 09:07 pm

Syntactic heresies OR Clearly there's something wrong with me

I opened up Eats, Shoots & Leaves, and I do not make it through the acknowledgments before snidely thinking to myself "Oh, the author's one of those grammarians." Which is to say, she has not seen the light and so does not use the serial comma. Apparently that inelegant ambiguity is more tolerated in her native Britain, however, which I should perhaps take as an extenuating circumstance.

[identity profile] learnedax.livejournal.com 2006-05-23 02:51 am (UTC)(link)
MLA, Chicago, and my longtime guide Strunk & White all strongly side with the serial comma.

Everyone should care about language. I personally care about being able to knowingly abuse it, as well...