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Jim Burns
Guest
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| Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2005 1:15 am
Post subject: Italicization Question |
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I know that when an author is writing about a word, as such, it should
be italiciized. But, in the folllowing sentence, 'car' acts as a
direct object before being parenthetically referred to as a word
"cognate with the Latin verb 'currere'. . . "
"Yes, Fred Flinstone's contraption was a car -- appropriately cognate
with the Latin verb 'currere' for running, because that's exactly
what Fred had to do to get it from place to place."
I was thus wondering whether this is acceptable, or should the
sentence be re-written more cumbrously as, say:
"Yes, Fred Flinstone's contraption was a 'car' -- which word is
appropriately cognate with the Latin verb 'currere' for running,
because that's exactly what Fred had to do to get it from place to
place."
Thanks in advance for your opinions.
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Donna Richoux
Guest
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| Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2005 1:41 am
Post subject: Re: Italicization Question |
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Jim Burns <> wrote:
| Quote: | I know that when an author is writing about a word, as such, it should
be italiciized. But, in the folllowing sentence, 'car' acts as a
direct object before being parenthetically referred to as a word
"cognate with the Latin verb 'currere'. . . "
"Yes, Fred Flinstone's contraption was a car -- appropriately cognate
with the Latin verb 'currere' for running, because that's exactly
what Fred had to do to get it from place to place."
I was thus wondering whether this is acceptable, or should the
sentence be re-written more cumbrously as, say:
"Yes, Fred Flinstone's contraption was a 'car' -- which word is
appropriately cognate with the Latin verb 'currere' for running,
because that's exactly what Fred had to do to get it from place to
place."
Thanks in advance for your opinions.
|
It would depend in part whether I thought my audience knew what a
cognate was.
The quotation marks around "car" do help indicate that you are talking
about the word as a word.
If the "which" sounds too stuffy, you could say "a word that is
appropriately cognate with..."
But in any case, I'd put another T in Flintstone.
--
Best wishes -- Donna Richoux |
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Mark Brader
Guest
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| Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2005 7:38 am
Post subject: Re: Italicization Question |
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Jim Burns writes:
| Quote: | I know that when an author is writing about a word, as such, it should
be italiciized.
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Of course, quotation marks can also serve that purpose, although
italics are preferred if available and if you're doing it a lot,
and especially if the word isn't English.
| Quote: | "Yes, Fred Flinstone's contraption was a car -- appropriately cognate
with the Latin verb 'currere' ..."
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In this case I would prefer quotation marks around "car" in any case;
this indicates that you're notionally quoting Fred when you say it,
and provides the necessary distancing. If /.../ indicates italics,
I'd suggest this version:
Yes, Fred Flintstone's contraption was a "car" -- appropriately cognate
with the Latin verb /currere/ ...
| Quote: | "Yes, Fred Flinstone's contraption was a 'car' -- which word is ..."
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I see no reason for that verbosity.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto | "You don't SIT IN the traffic jam;
msb@vex.net | you ARE the traffic jam." -- Werner Icking
My text in this article is in the public domain.
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