Re: punctuation [OT]

On 23 Feb 2008, Tony van der Hoff uttered the following:

On 23 Feb at 17:47 Nix <nix-razor-pit@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
<87k5kv7efk.fsf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

[snip]
everyone gets it
wrong

Not *everyone* does :)

No, but compare the number of people who get the rules for apostrophes
wrong (not that anything but the simplest parts of those rules are at
all clear) with the numbers who get the grammar of the spoken language
consistently wrong (*none* of those native speakers who don't have
serious neurological deficits) and you see the distinction.

Note that the grammar and syntax rules of the spoken language are so
complex and in parts so irregular that linguists are still arguing with
some vehemence over exactly what they are, and nobody's come up with a
consistent and complete set of rules yet, despite about a century of
effort by numerous very smart people. Yet we all learn them pretty much
flawlessly.

*That*'s the English language. The written form is just a pile of
recently-invented recording technology layered on top of it, with some
crude ambiguity- reduction rules to try to cater for the elimination of
tonal and prosodic cues. They don't work very well.

Interestingly, it is those of us for whom English was not our first
language, who seem to know the rules, and how to apply them best.

Oops. One too many commas in there (you see?)

Which only reflects the dismal state of the British educational
system.

Yeah, but it's notable that the British educational system *does not
need to teach people to speak English* (at least not people of nursery
age, who can hopefully be presumed to be native speakers) and if it did
would do every bit as bad a job. The job's too complex for anyone to do
well.

--
`The rest is a tale of post and counter-post.' --- Ian Rawlings
describes USENET
.

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