[stylist] What am I saying?

Donna Hill penatwork at epix.net
Wed May 15 17:42:03 UTC 2013


Eve,
Your questions are neither silly nor elementary, and the fact that you have
mustered the courage  to learn things that your school district should have
found a way to teach you years ago is very refreshing.
Donna

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Eve Sanchez
Sent: Wednesday, May 15, 2013 11:52 AM
To: Writer's Division Mailing List
Subject: Re: [stylist] What am I saying?

I guess that was my slip now. It is not that I hate punctuation and what it
does. It is more that I hate having to keep track of something that I have
never learned. I am getting there though. Mostly due to everyone's help with
my silly questions. Okay, 'silly' is not the
right word. Let us say "with my elementary questions" then. haha   Eve

On Wed, May 15, 2013 at 8:23 AM, Donna Hill <penatwork at epix.net> wrote:
> Eve,
> Good catch. I don't think it was Freudian so much as saying "is" 
> instead of "is not." It should have been, since there is no comma, it 
> is not someone announcing a guest to a person they are calling "sister."
>
> I had so much trouble with the computer yesterday. The answer I meant 
> to send was much more detailed, but the computer & Jaws died before I 
> could send it, so I had to start over, and apparently didn't 
> proof-read as well as I thought.
>
> I am sorry that you hate punctuation. It really helps convey messages. 
> If you haven't read it, I recommend "Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynn 
> Truss, which is on NLS. The title is an example of a phrase which has 
> vastly different meanings depending on the use of one comma; it also 
> changes the parts of speech of two words (noun or verb?). See what you
make of this:
>
> 1. "He eats shoots and leaves."
> 2. "He eats, shoots and leaves.
> Donna
> -----Original Message-----
> From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Eve 
> Sanchez
> Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2013 9:41 PM
> To: Writer's Division Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [stylist] What am I saying?
>
> I appreciate all of your answers. It is funny how people interpret 
> things differently or with such imagination. A wooden table? A
> visiting nun? hahaha   Donna, you suggested it meant the opposite of
> what everyone else had said. I think you had the same idea though and 
> just made a Freudian slip of sorts. You might want to relook to get it 
> straight for yourself. Thanks all. I hate punctuation. Eve
>
> On Tue, May 14, 2013 at 3:57 PM, Donna Hill <penatwork at epix.net> wrote:
>> Eve,
>> Chris is right; since there is no comma, it is someone announcing a 
>> guest to a person they are calling "sister." Since you didn't 
>> capitalize "sister," it can't be a nun. But, the term "guest sister"
>> is so unfamiliar to me that the sentence seems awkward. If you mean 
>> it in the sense that we call someone a "guest speaker," I think I'd 
>> want to see a hyphen in there. A hyphen would make a compound noun 
>> out of it and remove any confusion. We don't use the hyphen in "guest 
>> speaker," but the term is commonly understood. "Guest sister" isn't, 
>> hence the hyphen. I know some won't like "guest-sister," but there is 
>> one compound noun that has retained its hyphen, despite the fact that
> people universally understand what it means -- ice-cream.
>> Donna
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Chris 
>> Kuell
>> Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2013 11:41 AM
>> To: Writer's Division Mailing List
>> Subject: Re: [stylist] What am I saying?
>>
>> Eve,
>>
>> Because there is no punctuation, the sentence means that we have a 
>> 'guest sister', which can be considered an object (sister) with a 
>> modifier (guest), although I don't really know what the term means. I 
>> picture the head nun at a nunnery telling the other nuns, "We have a 
>> guest sister," meaning, a guest who is also a sister. Likewise, it 
>> could be at a meeting of African American women who speak that way.
>> But, the sentence can only be interpreted this way due to the lack of 
>> punctuation. It's exactly like saying 'We have a wooden table', or, 
>> 'We
> have a blue thunderbird'.
>>
>> chris
>>
>>
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