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Goronsky Posted 11 years ago
Linguistics Studies
Quotation marks -- thought I'd share
I found this an interesting tidbit from the Grammar Girl website. The American system makes absolutely no sense at all in terms of comma/full-stop placement:
Grammar Girl said:
‘Don’t get confused when you see this handled differently in The Economist or on the BBC website; just remember that it’s different in those publications because the British do it differently.
‘Compositors?people who layout printed material with type?made the original rule that placed periods and commas inside quotation marks to protect the small metal pieces of type from breaking off the end of the sentence. The quotation marks protected the commas and periods. In the early 1900s, it appears that the Fowler brothers (who wrote a famous British style guide called 'The King’s English') began lobbying to make the rules more about logic and less about the mechanics of typesetting. They won the British battle, but Americans didn’t adopt the change. That’s why we have different styles.’
Grammar Girl said:
‘Don’t get confused when you see this handled differently in The Economist or on the BBC website; just remember that it’s different in those publications because the British do it differently.
‘Compositors?people who layout printed material with type?made the original rule that placed periods and commas inside quotation marks to protect the small metal pieces of type from breaking off the end of the sentence. The quotation marks protected the commas and periods. In the early 1900s, it appears that the Fowler brothers (who wrote a famous British style guide called 'The King’s English') began lobbying to make the rules more about logic and less about the mechanics of typesetting. They won the British battle, but Americans didn’t adopt the change. That’s why we have different styles.’
Top answer
Thanks, goronsky, for sharing that. I remember learning also about 'serif' fonts (like Times New Roman) when I first learned to type. The pointy 'serifs' helped protect the slugs of font from wearing out quickly.
- Thanks, goronsky, for sharing that.
- I remember learning also about 'serif' fonts (like Times New Roman) when I first learned to type.
- The pointy 'serifs' helped protect the slugs of font from wearing out quickly.
- Early typewriters had only serif font.
- A lot came from those typesetting rules.
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1 Answers
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Thanks, goronsky, for sharing that. I remember learning also about 'serif' fonts (like Times New Roman) when I first learned to type. The pointy 'serifs' helped protect the slugs of font from wearing out quickly. Early typewriters had only serif font. A lot came from those typesetting rules.
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