Re: Sheepish Question

Els,
Your English is FINE. Everyone in this group who has English as a second,
third, fourth or more language is FANTASTIC!
I know I've told this story before, but I will repeat it.
When my niece, Laura was very young, there was a Rotary Exchange Student in
her class, whom Laura and her friends made fun of, for their "accent".... I
quietly told Laura:
"Just remember, anyone who speaks English with an accent speaks at LEAST
one more language than YOU do!" She got the point, told her friends ...
and the teasing stopped, with apologies.
Later, I told her that her own gramma's accent is due to Polish being the
primary language in my mother's home, with English being first learned at
school.
Laura is now a champion of helping immigrant's learn to speak, read and
write English.
whew, off my soapbox...
what I'm trying to say, is never ever make apologies for asking questions
about English usage!
HUGS,
Noreen

--
change n e t to c o m to email/reply to me.
"Els van Dam" <jacoba@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:jacoba-2504062101050001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In article <124trngofju5afb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, dicconf@xxxxxxxxx
(Richard Eney) wrote:

In article <jacoba-2504061613010001@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Els van Dam <jacoba@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
dicconf@xxxxxxxxx (Richard Eney) wrote:
<snip>

Quotation marks are best saved for actual quoting, because when they
are used as if for emphasis, they really mean that the word is being
used sarcastically: for example, a "good" solution is really a _bad_
solution. A "genuine" antique is obviously a fake, and a "fresh" egg
is almost certainly rotten.

=Tamar

Tamar what an interesting way of looking at that. I often use
Quotation
marks, to make that "one" word stand out, but never to be sarcastic
though.....or to mean the opposite. That is too complicated thinking
for me. Are you saying that when I do that the quotation marks become
asteriks...? when you guys get to read, what I have written.... I
never
see asteriks in any text here..??

No, the asterisks stay the way they are, and the quotation marks stay
the way they are. I am used to the fact that some people use quotation
marks for emphasis (so I do understand that you are not being
sarcastic),
but it isn't the way I was taught in English class in school. I was
taught that quotation marks that aren't actually around a quotation mean
that the word is being used with the tone of voice that indicates
sarcasm.
Or at least, it means that there is something odd about the statement
and people should think about it carefully.

Remember air quotes? I think that gesture was popular in the 1980s.
People would waggle fingers in the air - two fingers on each hand,
to be the quotation marks - to indicate that a statement was sarcastic
because they weren't sure their audience would understand the tone of
voice.

Sometimes it's funny to read advertising written by people who don't
know that; sometimes I think it makes the advertising more honest than
they meant it to be... ;-)

=Tamar

Tamar and Noreen Thanks for the Enlish lesson. I have a very good exuse,
for erring, most of my English is, was, learned by word of mouth and from
listening to others, from reading books and being corrected when I do it
wrong. I will add these little bits to my learning lessons Now lets
hope
I do not forget.

Els
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