'Who gives a fuck about the Oxford comma?'

[Nearly Sane]

I do


https://thewritelife.com/is-the-oxford-comma-necessary/

[Dicky Underpants]

I do


https://thewritelife.com/is-the-oxford-comma-necessary/

Since its omission has apparently led to significant court cases, then I'd have to concede its importance.
On an everyday level, I get more annoyed by the grocer's apostrophe, and exasperated by the use of "I was like" to mean "I said, or "I thought" or "I felt" or even "I shouted" (The most offensive instance of this related to the events of the recent terrorist stabbings. A witness stated "People were like "Run for your lives". So ingrained was the habit that she could not even find the word "shouted" in her memory banks).
 
For a subtle punctuation nuance from this forum, does anyone think there is a difference between writing "A Jew, steeped in midrashim" and "A Jew steeped in midrashim"?

[wigginhall]

That's a bit unfair, Dicky.   Some dialects of English have 'I am like' as a formation, meaning 'I said', in a dramatic sense.   'I'm like, 'you slag'', and she's like, 'no, you're the slag''.   I don't know if it's just London.

[Nearly Sane]

That's a bit unfair, Dicky.   Some dialects of English have 'I am like' as a formation, meaning 'I said', in a dramatic sense.   'I'm like, 'you slag'', and she's like, 'no, you're the slag''.   I don't know if it's just London.

Also isn't 'I'm like' partly visual in most cases. 'It's like' pictographic language. (imagine me waving hands and raising eyebrow)

[Rhiannon]

That's a bit unfair, Dicky.   Some dialects of English have 'I am like' as a formation, meaning 'I said', in a dramatic sense.   'I'm like, 'you slag'', and she's like, 'no, you're the slag''.   I don't know if it's just London.

I'm also aware that my use of language slips when I'm distressed. I *think* I would have said 'they were shouting' but I can't guarantee it.

My big frustration is with 'I went' to mean 'I said'. Don't know if it's a London thing as my cockney family have never used it.

[Shaker]

I'm also aware that my use of language slips when I'm distressed. I *think* I would have said 'they were shouting' but I can't guarantee it.

My big frustration is with 'I went' to mean 'I said'. Don't know if it's a London thing as my cockney family have never used it.

I'm glad I don't have a sloppy accent. Oh, the horror.

[Rhiannon]

I'm glad I don't have a sloppy accent. Oh, the horror.

Mine's Estuary. Generally regarded as the sloppiest of the sloppy.

[Shaker]

Mine's Estuary. Generally regarded as the sloppiest of the sloppy.

Not by everyone!

[trippymonkey]

YES ?!!?!?
The apostrophe on plural's ?!?!!? LOL
Accent & dialect is one thing but blatant WRONG english is not the same as BAD english. Written anyway !!!

[Aruntraveller]

There is a local BBC weather forecaster on  East Midlands news who insists on using the phrase "more windier" which reduces me to raging at the screen.

The only thing I take consolation from is the fact that their accent isn't an East Midlands accent. Yes, you are guilty Yorkshire!

[Harrowby Hall]

YES ?!!?!?
The apostrophe on plural's ?!?!!? LOL
Accent & dialect is one thing but blatant WRONG english is not the same as BAD english. Written anyway !!!

We have been here lots of times. The apostrophe has only one use - to indicate elision (even though that elision may have happened hundreds of years ago).

I have always considered that spoken language and written language were separate entities. The only time it is permissible to write in dialect is when one is reporting - or representing - spoken language (for instance a narration by a dialect speaker).

[bluehillside Retd.]

Hi Dicky,

For a subtle punctuation nuance from this forum, does anyone think there is a difference between writing "A Jew, steeped in midrashim" and "A Jew steeped in midrashim"?

Yes - in the former the "steeped in midrashim" characterises the Jew; in the latter it's an adjunct.

My bug bear by the way is people turning around so much, as in: "So I turned round and I said to him...then he turned round and said to me ...." etc. Don't they get giddy?

[jeremyp]

I do


https://thewritelife.com/is-the-oxford-comma-necessary/

I disagree, there is no ambiguity without the oxford comma. "packing for shipment" and "distribution" are clearly two separate items. If they were intended to be one item, as the last item on the list there would have been a conjunction preceding it. i.e.

The canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing or packing for shipment or distribution of

[Harrowby Hall]

Eats, Shoots, and Leaves - by Lynne Truss.

A zero tolerance guide to punctuation in English.

Eats, shoots, and leaves  ...    or   ...   eats shoots and leaves   ...   ?

[Dicky Underpants]

Hi Dicky,

Yes - in the former the "steeped in midrashim" characterises the Jew; in the latter it's an adjunct.

My bug bear by the way is people turning around so much, as in: "So I turned round and I said to him...then he turned round and said to me ...." etc. Don't they get giddy?

Hi Blue.
Quite so. Don't know if the erstwhile perpetrator of the former did have a tendency to anti-semitism; I know that many here thought him to be racist.

[Dicky Underpants]

Also isn't 'I'm like' partly visual in most cases. 'It's like' pictographic language. (imagine me waving hands and raising eyebrow)

Hi NS.

The hell it is - certainly not in 'most cases' round here in Bristol. The use to which you refer is about the only instance of "I was like" (except in the correct sense of  'similar to') that I can tolerate. In most cases round here it is obsessively used to substitute simply 'I said' or 'I thought'. In fact, in many conversations I've been forced to endure on buses or in cafes 'I'm like' or 'I was like' seems to constitute 30% of the verbiage. Add the inevitable sentence-filler of 'like' peppering every three word phrase, then you're left with a barrage of gibberish of which 70% consists of the word 'like'.
When I hear 'business people' uttering such meaningless garbage in cafes (as I sometimes do), I get so exasperated that I have to move to a different part of the cafe out of earshot. Maybe I'm just over-sensitive. On the other hand, I don't give a monkey's toss about people swearing, and certainly don't think it automatically indicates a poverty of vocabulary, as one drongo on this forum used to insist.

[bluehillside Retd.]

Hi again DU,

The hell it is - certainly not in 'most cases' round here in Bristol. The use to which you refer is about the only instance of "I was like" (except in the correct sense of  'similar to') that I can tolerate. In most cases round here it is obsessively used to substitute simply 'I said' or 'I thought'. In fact, in many conversations I've been forced to endure on buses or in cafes 'I'm like' or 'I was like' seems to constitute 30% of the verbiage. Add the inevitable sentence-filler of 'like' peppering every three word phrase, then you're left with a barrage of gibberish of which 70% consists of the word 'like'.

When I hear 'business people' uttering such meaningless garbage in cafes (as I sometimes do), I get so exasperated that I have to move to a different part of the cafe out of earshot. Maybe I'm just over-sensitive. On the other hand, I don't give a monkey's toss about people swearing, and certainly don't think it automatically indicates a poverty of vocabulary, as one drongo on this forum used to insist.

Just to add that a phrase such as, "they screw like rabbits" has an unfortunate meaning when the "like" is used as currently employed by "da yoof" (as in, "they screw, like, rabbits!").