h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

"shouldn't start a sentence", even

I've no idea about Greek at all, but with Latin I don't think they used any punctuation whatsoever, it justrantogetherlikethis. Legere is Latin for 'to read', hence legible etc, and meant 'to pick' originally Hope this helps.

I believe question marks and exclamation marks are relatively recent inventions, if I remember my ES&L correctly, but didn't the Romans use a full stop, that was halfway up the line?

RF

Re Latin: wasn’t the halfway up thingy used as a sign that a new word starts?

I think that the important thing is to accept that language evolves. The question we need to work with is what changes are useful and acceptable? Personally I think we should be able to start a sentence with a conjunction as it is very easy to read, but I don't see any positive reason for scrapping capitalistion.

I've just had a thought. The Latin I studied was Roman Latin, but possibly medieval Latin did have limited punctuation.

Didn't say it was a profound thought, but there you go.

Dibs101

"And Jab not wishing to be rude..."

{Ok On That Premise Do You Really Think Just Because It Was In A Song That Makes It Right?}

"Language Evolves." Yes, so many songs with the word "mother" and "f..." (It's being about slaves being raped by gang masters.) still if that what people want.

{buy popular demand lets abandon capital letters, next we could ditch punctuation of any kind and so on. alert the editors the entire guide needs to be re-written!}

Once again you've left me totally clueless, Jab? Where was Mother and F... in Jerusalem? Or are you on about something else now?

Sorry you are having difficulty understanding.

Obviously capitals and punctuation do nothing to further communication. Who's point has just been proved?

Maybe if you sing it, it will be *right.*

I think it's more the non-sequitur causing confusion.

RF

I think it is you Dibs 101 that is missing the point. A song and prose are two different means of communication. Not least of all that one stimulates the auditory senses and the other the visual senses. Each requires different protocols; nay demand it, to be effective.

Failure to appreciate the difference leads to a breakdown in communication.

Donald

PS The use of the semi-colon above is more due to excellent grammatical abilities of Microsoft Word than my own.

Donald

I wouldn't put my trust in that MS grammar checker, Donald, I've found it to be wrong on many occasions.

RF

MS Word's grammar checker is the unholy spawn of the Devil himself and Bill Gates. Turn it off. It's utter shite. It suggests grammatical ideas that are not correct in UK English, US English, or indeed any language, with the possible exception of Bratislavian.

Reference Software International

Gram-Mat-Ik

Did'nt M$ just buy up this company and product to patch it into Word some years ago?

KerrAvon describes forthrightly what I was saying politely.

RF

I've never been one to stand on tact.



















I stand on my feet.
Ba bum.

The MS grammar checker is far from perfect, but at least it recognises correct capitalisation and punctuation. Gets a bit confused sometimes with pronouns and adjectives.

Grammatic was bought by The Word-Perfect Corporation and included with there work processor. It was actually a very good grammar checker as was the spell checker. Not only did it tell you what was wrong, told you why it was wrong and how to put it right.

Donald

Donald, thankyou for that, I'd heard they had been bought years ago. Still I'll have to try with new software an old copy of it some time.