Don Phillipson
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2005 10:40 pm
Post subject: Re: Punctuation Problem |
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"PeeJ" <peej102@btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:df6pqo$ebd$1@nwrdmz02.dmz.ncs.ea.ibs-infra.bt.com...
| Quote: | Would someone like to express an opinion if the following has correct
punctuation for AE:
"Oh my god!" he exclaimed, "what is that?"
As the first part of the dialogue ends with an exclamation point, which in
normal circumstances is a terminator, should there be a period after the
attribution?
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No. Only a single punctuation mark should appear (never
two together) but (as you wrote) the exclamation mark has
the function of a full stop -- so that the next item of either
narrative or reported speech begins a new sentence, thus
requires in English that the first word be capitialized.
| Quote: | This would mean that "what is that?" would need to start with
a capital. If the attribution were removed then a capital would be
required:
"Oh my god! What is that?"
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Exactly: so interpolating "he exclaimed" gives us correctly:
"Oh my god!" he exclaimed. "What is that?"
No rule determines that the mark after "exclaimed"
should be a comma or something else.
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada) |
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