> Funny, I always punctuate depending on whether the mark is part of the > quotation (punc inside quote marks) or not (punc outside quote marks). I > have never been corrected on this, although my diss. adviser was more > assiduous with copy editing than with content discussion!! "Comma and period inside without exception" is a convention of American typesetters. The "logical"--as though anything about language use were logical <grin>--use of binding punctuation to the phrase more closely than to the quotation marks is true for German, maybe UK English, French, maybe Spanish also(?) > Do Brits really use comma splices that often? I haven't noticed this. I Yes, they do--as far as I've read British literature. The concept doesn't even exist in German, where sentences are "spliced" frequently. ==Cheerio, Reinhold ============================================================================ Dr. Reinhold Schlieper Humanities Department 8 Red Maple Circle Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University The Woodlands Daytona Beach FL 32114 Ormond Beach FL 32174 Phone: 904-226-6664 Phone: 904-676-9392 Visit my home page at: http://minbar.db.erau.edu/~schliepr Private e-mail: [log in to unmask] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Was sich ueberhaupt sagen laesst, laesst sich klar sagen; und wovon man nicht reden kann, darueber muss man schweigen. --Ludwig Wittgenstein [probably anticipating post-modernism <grin>] ============================================================================