I've talked on here in the past about how difficult translation in the Bible is (The Possibilities of Each Word). When you throw in punctuation, it's a whole new ball game.
Some examples from Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss:
"Verily, I say unto thee, this day thou shalt be with me in Paradise." vs.
"Verily I say unto thee this day, thou shalt be with me in Paradise."
from Luke 23:43
Isaiah 40:3
"The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of the Lord." vs.
"The voice of him that crieth: In the wilderness prepare ye the way of the Lord."
Also Isaiah 40:1:
"Comfort ye my people"
(please go comfort my people)
"Comfort ye, my people"
(cheer up! it might never happen!)
Grammar is insane! If people think that it doesn't matter, we're sorely mistaken. Please run out and buy or check out from your local library, Eats, Shoots & Leaves. Even if you hate grammar like I do, this book offers funny examples and extremely visual rules of grammar (ever wonder why the apostrophe has so many jobs?) that you won't soon forget.
GET IT!
2 comments:
I read Eats, Shoots & Leaves a few years ago. Though I admit that parts of it were great, I found the author a bit sanctimonious (I'm very sanctimonious myself, so I qualified to point this out).
yeah... i'm not a stickler at all and some things she railed against i didn't even care about or pick up upon. still a great book for those of us who write (but don't like to capitalize ;-))
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