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Subject: Kata Markon

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  • From: JFAlward AT aol.com
  • To: gmark AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: RE: Proper Punctuation
  • Date: Fri, 18 Oct 2002 02:49:44 EDT


LARRY SWAIN
And whose King James Bible? a) do you really think that something done in
1611 is indicative of 21st century usage and orthography? Surely you jest?
and b) did you happen to check a King James Bible printed in England and
edited by an English editor or did you grab a KJV edited and printed by an
American publisher? My guess is the latter, in which case your [sic] judging
British usage by an American editor's usage, not quite cricket there ol' boy.

JOSEPH ALWARD

My King's James Version of the Bible was printed in Great Britain. Aren't
they all? The "Selected Helps to the Study of the Bible" in the back abound
in examples of the American-style punctuation I was talking about, and these
are from British authors (e.g., George Spurrell, M.A., Balliol College,
Oxford). Doesn't yours show the same? I've argued that irrespective of
current British practice (if indeed it's still standard), punctuation in
articles about the Bible probably should be consistent with the punctuation
people around the world find in their KJV Bibles. If not, why not?

LARRY SWAIN

Finally, Fowler has been consistently updated and reissued, the newest I
believe is the 3rd edition, was put out in 2000. Not sure if that is the
edition Eric was using or not, but best not criticize there either until your
[sic] certain he was using the 1908 version, and that you can demonstrate
from other newer and better sources (other than your own uncatalogued and
unverified observation) that the British norm has sufficiently changed to
warrant challenging that venerable tool.

JOSEPH ALWARD

I think what really matters is whether an article's punctuation meets the
standards of the journal, and in the case of the Journal of Biblical
Literature, which I believe is published in the United States, the U.S.
standards should prevail. Those standards call for periods and commas always
to appear before the closing quotation mark. If Goodacre and Gibson submit
their articles to British journals, there may not be a problem if they use a
punctuation rule different from that which is used in the U.S. But, I got the
impression that these authors used JBL, and that--at least in Gibson's
case--he welcomed constructive criticisms and suggestions--indeed, he
specifically asked for them. If my observations are actually not welcome, or
are inappropriate, then I feel very bad about that.

LARRY SWAIN

As someone else remarked, this conversation smacks more of personal attack
than it does of serious critiquing of Jeffrey's paper and argument.

JOE ALWARD
Then "someone else" is wrong, because most of my criticism was directed
toward Goodacre's apparent inconsistency in sometimes using periods inside
the closing quotation, and sometimes not. It is evident that he is using
Fowler's convention, not the American one, in his web article, and that is
his right. If it had been published in JBL, that's a different matter. As
for Jeffrey, I think you will find that all I said was that his periods were
outside the quotation marks, while they belonged inside; his usage was
consistent. I had assumed he was submitting his work to be published in JBL,
which I believe is published in the U.S., where the standard calls for the
period to be placed outside the quotes. I mentioned this to him, told him it
was "a small matter, " he thanked me, and that should have been the end of
it, since it was a small matter, compared to the things I really wanted to
talk about.

I'm through talking about punctuation, now, if you are.

LARRY SWAIN
I would prefer to return to the paper.........

JOSEPH ALWARD
So would I. People so far seem only to want to talk about commas. Where is
the substantive response to the post in which I countered Gibson's Gethsemane
interpretation? That is what I really would like to talk about.




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