Friday, July 11, 2014

Rules Project: ? Placement and the /

When reading blogs, especially of the pop culture/celebrity set, I've noticed question marks being used in the middle of sentences. The example below is from Crazy Days and Nights.
              This B list mostly movie actor knew his C- list celebrity/reality star? was married
              when they started hooking up well over a year ago.
              Don't believe the time lines being sent out by publicists
              or vague statements about friendship. It was full on cheating.


              http://www.crazydaysandnights.net/2014/07/blind-items-revealed_6048.html


In the example above, a question mark is placed after "C-list celebrity/reality star?" in order to question whether she could in fact be considered that. However, the author places that in the middle of a sentence and then continues with "was married." It is my sense that this is done to save space and time. Generally, the way to question someone's status would be to say something like "the arguably C- list celebrity/reality star."


According to Grammar.CCC.Comment.Edu, question marks should be used "at the end of a direct question." http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/marks/question.htm


The other grammar point is the use of the slash to say that someone is one thing or another. In the example above, the author said that a person was a "C-list celebrity/reality star." In this case I think it means that the person could be called a celebrity or a reality star. I guess by celebrity than mean a celebrity for something other than reality TV.


 According to Grammar.CCC.Comment.Edu, this use of the "slash" or "virgule" [ / ] is not considered grammatically incorrect but rather is used to indicate a choice between the words it separates. In my view, this is another time saving technique but would not be appreciated in professional writing.

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Rules Project: Are double negatives never ok?



Today's grammar point is one that I feel is prescriptively wrong but one that I think works. The celebrity blog X17 reports that "Portia De Rossi Secretly Went to Rehab in May." The blog's author expresses surprise that this has not been discovered sooner by saying, "We can't
believe nobody found out until now!"  To me, this seems like a double negative that works just fine.




According to the Grammarly Handbook, a double negative happens when two negatives happen in the same clause. "In Standard English, however, double negatives in a single clause cancel each other out and transform the meaning into a positive."




Grammarly Handbook: http://www.grammarly.com/handbook/sentences/negatives/2/double-negatives/