Tuesday, February 9, 2010

I don't even know what to call this thing, but its from the Fun with Punc. thing

Punctuation is a very mysterious thing sometimes. It is the only thing other than tone that can completely change the meaning of a sentence. It is just crazy how that works. A person could just spell a word wrong and have completely different meaning to their sentence. For example, if a friend were to type to me, "What's that under there?," then I should respond, "Under where?," if I do not understand the area that he is describing. However, if I were to respond with "Underwear?," then I would be ridiculed for talking about under garments. So the spelling of just one measly little word can completely alter the outcome of a conversation. The exact same thing can be done with punctuation. If I were to mess up the comma placing, the period, or even the spacing, then the sentence could be taken in a completely different meaning. I really liked the example used in "Fun with Punctuation." You know what I am talking about, the quote, "Let's eat Grandpa," and "Let's eat, Grandpa." One can be taken that you want to become a cannibal and the other suggests that you are ready to eat with grandpa. 197 Another classic comes from the movie "The Love Guru." This one is, "If your Uncle Jack helped you off an elephant, would you help your Uncle Jack off an elephant." The reason this is funny in the movie is if you forget to capitalize "Jack" in the second part of the sentence then it can be taken pervertedly. It is amazing how just a slight change in punctuation can make something so funny.

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