A Word, Please: Readers punctuate grammatical concerns

Some interesting stuff landed in the mailbag for this week. Let’s dive in.

First comes a question about a column in which I wrote: “Never use an apostrophe to form a plural unless it’s necessary for clarity.”

Rosemary in Pennsylvania has a 1970 Webster’s New World College Dictionary that begs to differ: “In my dictionary, the rule for using an apostrophe to form plurals states: ‘Use an apostrophe to indicate the plurals of figures, letters, and words referred to as such.’ … Have the rules changed regarding the use of apostrophes to form plurals?”

Rules change over time. My 2004 Webster’s New World College Dictionary differs some from Rosemary’s 1970 edition. But more important: Who put the dictionary people in charge of punctuation?

Language books disagree on punctuation rules, and none of them has ultimate authority. Publishers rely on a few well-respected sources, especially the Chicago Manual of Style and the AP Stylebook, which sometimes disagree with each other.

However, their widespread use gives these two rule books a lot of legitimacy. They set the standard for professional writing. So you can follow the punctuation rules in your dictionary if you want. But in language, might makes right, so the style guides have more sway.

In another recent column, I wrote: “Let’s face it, grammar is more important for some people than for others.”

Al in Glendale had some thoughts. “That comma after the opening clause, though it may be OK, just didn’t sound like the best thing to use. It seemed to me that something a bit heavier was needed. My mind settled on a colon or a dash as the most desirable punctuation mark, with a slight preference for the colon. In a slightly distant third place was the semicolon.”

Any of these punctuation marks could work. But could one really improve my sentence?

A dash? Nah. Dashes set off parenthetical information or they indicate an abrupt change in thought or structure. So putting one between two complete clauses can stretch the rules a bit too far.

A semicolon? No way. Semicolons between whole clauses are usually silly. They raise the question: Why didn’t you just write two sentences?

A colon? Actually, yes. In retrospect, I think that would have been a better choice. A colon adds emphasis to whatever follows it. It says, “Listen: Here’s my point.” Al wins this round.

Dick in New York State wanted to know whether “fresh picked corn” is an ungrammatical version of “freshly picked corn” or whether, perhaps, the two forms carry different connotations. “Is it picked corn that is fresh or corn that has recently (freshly) been picked?” Dick also wondered: Is the dynamic similar to terms like “rest easy”?

Not exactly. In “rest easy,” “sitting pretty,” “slice the meat thin,” “dig deep” and similar sentences, the modifier refers to the noun. So an adjective like “easy,” “pretty” or “thin” is correct. But in “drive slow,” “come quick” and “breathe deep,” the modifier is describing the action. So it is an adverb.

When you drop the “ly” ending from an adverb, it’s called a flat adverb. In some cases, flat adverbs are completely above board. Look up “slow” in most dictionaries and you’ll see it’s a synonym of the adverb “slowly.” In other cases, dropping the “ly” is considered informal or even unseemly.

So does fresh picked corn mean picked corn that is fresh? Or does it mean corn that is freshly picked? Well, why would anyone talk about “picked corn”? It goes without saying that the corn was picked. The only reason you’d bring up the picking at all is to emphasize it was done so recently. So that “fresh” isn’t modifying the noun “corn.” It’s describing the picking. It emphasizes that the corn was freshly picked.

This is the job for an adverb. So in “fresh picked corn,” we don’t have an adjective modifying a noun. We have a flat adverb modifying “picked.” And though these flat adverbs are sometimes fine in informal contexts, Dick’s sentence would be more proper with “freshly picked.”

JUNE CASAGRANDE is the author of “The Best Punctuation Book, Period.” She can be reached at [email protected].