Examples and comparings to God, or Gods in general, are a great manner to prehend the audiences consideration, or heartfelt attending. In Pico Iyers essay In congratulations of the Humble Comma, he uses this to convey, to the audience, the necessity of punctuation in mundane written linguistic communication. Not merely is it a grammatically sound demand, but an emotional demand every bit good, as Iyer discusses. In the gap paragraph, Iyer compares the Gods to a mere comma. However, as we learn from Iyer, there is nil mere about such a punctuation grade. He states that they can each “ give breath and take it off. ” While it may be, or may non be true that Gods really are at mistake for our being, there is an infallible truth in his comparings: commas represent the human emotion ; the speedy breath before a long sentence, or the intermission needed for accent. While it is true that commas represent human breaths and intermissions, it may besides give breath in sentences while used ; the same thing may be said when they are n’t. Without the comma, complex sentences would be really difficult to construe ; English would still be a really long line of run-on sentences. So, one could state that the comma is what holds the written linguistic communication together. Iyer, through direct and indirect illustrations, is able to convey to the audience the importance of such a tool. Through metaphoric linguistic communication, existent universe application, and proper usage of grammar, Iyer has succeeded at making a really challenging essay.
Reading Ivey ‘s essay, I came across a overplus of analogies, metaphors, comparings, and accounts. My favourite quotation mark is as follows: “ Punctuation, one is taught, has a point: to maintain up jurisprudence and order. Punctuation Markss are the route marks placed along the main road of our communicating — to command velocities, provide waies and forestall head-on hits. A period has the unblinking conclusiveness of a ruddy visible radiation ; the comma is a flashing xanthous visible radiation that asks us merely to decelerate down ; and the semicolon is a stop mark that tells us to ease bit by bit to a arrest, before bit by bit get downing up once more. By set uping the dealingss between words, punctuation establishes the dealingss between the people utilizing words ( Pico Iyer, page 318 ) . ” The last sentence of that block quotation mark made me halt and re-read the transition. What Ivey is seeking to state is straightforward: Punctuation is written human emotion. Every intermission after a sentence may be a period. A intermission between thoughts, or a speedy breath, may be interpreted as a comma. Understanding, and looking at grammar in Ivey ‘s manner, has helped me understand the usage of punctuation Markss. While I write this, I am cognizant that each sentence should sound like a human being speaking to another. Punctuation is what has bettered our linguistic communication – non to advert it has made us sound smarter. Iyer clearly has a huge apprehension of the manner composing mechanics work, and has been gracious plenty to portion his understanding with his readers. Diging deeper, can every human curse or emotion be characterized in punctuation? Listening to a stereotyped teenage conversation, one will hear an surplus of vocalized intermissions, such as ah, um, as, and my favourite, like. While many could state that there is non a direct correlativity to vocalized intermissions and punctuation, I believe there is. Vocalized intermissions occur for one large ground: the talker is in the procedure of happening the words to pronounce, and the oral cavity is working faster than the encephalon. So, I interpret vocalized intermissions as mere oversights in fluidness. Coming back to commas, one time could infer that vocalized intermissions, one time transcribed to written text, could merely be our low friend, the comma. Since vocalized intermissions happen the most when one is seeking to depict something, or after an interrupter, it is non such a cockamamie idea. “ Punctuation therefore becomes the signature of civilizations. The hot-blooded Spaniard seems to be revealed in the passion and urgency of his twofold exclaiming points and inquiry Markss ( “ Caramba! Quien sabe? ” ) while the stolid Chinese traditionally added to his alleged inscrutability by excluding waies from his ideograph. The lawlessness and disturbance of the ’60s were given voice in the detonating exclaiming Markss, exuberant capital letters and Day-Glo italics of Tom Wolfe ‘s spray-paint prose ; and in Communist societies, where the State is absolute, the self-respect — and deity — of capital letters is reserved for Ministries, Sub-Committees and Secretariats. ( Ivey, page 319 ) ” Punctuation has become a signature of our societies.
And what a signature! As Ivey modestly points out, the manner we talk and write can assist determine a civilization. So, the at hand inquiry here is simple: are we destructing the English Language? With the coming of texting and globalized cyberspace, there has been an invasion. Simply put, there has been an invasion of acronyms. If the “ hot-blooded Spaniard ” is characterized with tasty exclaiming points and cryptic inquiry Markss, so how do we qualify our young person civilization? LOL. We send people text messages because we have come to trust on the velocity of modern communicating, and there is an outlook for an every bit as instantaneous answer. An wholly new civilization is get downing to organize ; complete with its ain linguistic communication. There are literally 1000s of abbreviations used for alternate spellings to words, and it has late spilled into our ain conversational linguistic communication. Every clip I hear a vocalized abbreviation, I have to shiver. Not merely are they destructing the English linguistic communication, but they are doing themselves look stupid – which in bend, means less regard for my age group. While it surely has n’t affected the English linguistic communication as a whole yet, the trouble here is generational. ‘Texters ‘ are utilizing text vocabulary at a younger age. So, I believe we may acquire to a point where a younger coevals is able to read vocabulary and abbreviations easier than written English. Therefore, it makes the full, written linguistic communication, seem boring. Abridging address ( frequently ) or go forthing out punctuation can denote stupidity. So, we may stop up non merely being a lazy society, but an stupid 1 every bit good – at least, in the eyes of the universe. As we know, visual aspects can be everything. So, it strikes me as odd that the most mercenary and superficial society would take to sound crackbrained. Looking back at Ivey ‘s essay, he included an extract of a missive from Gary Gilmore to his girlfriend. Reading the subtext, I learned that he was a consecutive liquidator. His authorship was as follows: “ We love each other and belong to each other Lashkar-e-Taiba ‘s do n’t of all time ache each other. ” Reading that statement, I can do a just accusal that he was, unhappily, rather daft – particularly with the cognition that he was a consecutive slayer. The job with our society today is that we may non cognize when to utilize, or even somewhat understand, sociolinguistics – and many of us end up sounding like Mr. Gilmore. I see it all the clip on societal networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace ; adolescents so frenetic to state people about what they are making – that they forget simple qualifiers and punctuation. They leave out things that no longer need use in our cyber-language – such as commas, periods, capitalisation, and so on. I feel as though we are consistently puting up our young person for failure. While Iyer may hold or differ with my place on texting, I know that he loves composing. And since he loves authorship, he must besides love grammar. Consequently, he proved himself, by executing what he preached – unlike Popes of the sixteenth century.
Throughout the essay, Iyer illustrated his beautiful usage of the comma. His first two sentences to get down off the essay are as follows: “ The Gods, they say, give breath, and they take it off. But the same could be said — could it non? — of the low comma. Add it to the present clause, and, of a sudden, the head is, rather literally, given pause to believe ; take it out if you wish or bury it and the head is deprived of a resting topographic point. ( Iyer, Page 318 ) ” Written text is a batch more clear when there is some assortment to it ; a narrative with no punctuation is like football with no interceptions. There is no surprise, or exhilaration, behind the narrative. Like Iyer declared, linguistic communication without punctuation is like music with no notation. Music without intermissions, crescendos, or psyche, makes a really dull piece of music – something our civilization has mass produced. In a manner, we have destroyed the true kernel of music ; we have begun to make the same thing to written linguistic communication.
Iyer communicates his love of the comma through metaphorical linguistic communication, real-world applications, and his ain command of grammar. If address is so something to mensurate intelligence off of, we, as a state, need to determine up. Punctuation has fallen by the roadside due to the morning of texting, and its subsequent effects. Future coevalss may get down to talk utilizing acronyms on a regular basis, farther nailing our darling linguistic communication. In a manner, it was destined to go on. In the immediate “ I want it now ” outlook of the westernized universe, punctuation, in itself, has become otiose ; we merely do non hold clip to spell out words. While a few brave psyches may take to utilize pronunciation, the unreflective bulk will non.
Journal
I was taken with his metaphorical linguistic communication. Almost every paragraph there is some kind of address that emphasizes, or better explains, his ain point. My favourite metaphor was the one about street visible radiations: “ Punctuation Markss are the route marks placed along the main road of our communicating — to command velocities, provide waies and forestall head-on hits. A period has the unblinking conclusiveness of a ruddy visible radiation ; the comma is a flashing xanthous visible radiation that asks us merely to decelerate down ; and the semicolon is a stop mark that tells us to ease bit by bit to a arrest, before bit by bit get downing up once more. By set uping the dealingss between words, punctuation establishes the dealingss between the people utilizing words. ”
1. Each simile and metaphor are highly effectual at conveying Iyer ‘s stance to the audience. He introduces analogy early in the 2nd paragraph with an analogy about street visible radiations, as shown in missive A. He uses his cognition of the comma to demo his command of it. In the first paragraph, he is able to acquire off with 5 commas in one sentence!
2. Iyer ‘s chief points are: Punctuations are written human emotion, punctuation holds society vertical, it is a signature of civilizations, it is music to our heads, punctuation gives composing a human voice, and punctuation gives composing deepness. Culturally, Iyer states that Spanish is characterized with the dual exclaiming and inquiry Markss to add accent to the said emotion. The 60 ‘s in the US saw a batch of exclaiming Markss, and it was relevant to the hustle-and-bustle times.
3. A really celebrated illustration of this is a book called Eats, Shoots and Leaves, by Lynne Truss, follows this illustration. If a coon bear bear eats shoots and foliages, it could be inferred that he sat down at a eating house, opened fire, and quickly left. However, if it were read: Chows, shoots and foliages, you can understand that a coon bear bear chiefly has a diet consisting of shoots and leaves from a bamboo tree.
S – The importance of the comma in written linguistic communication.
O – An article for the New York Times.
A – Readers of the New York Times.
P – To educate/inform readers on the importance of the comma.
S – Pico Iyer.
