Punctuation Period

izzarina · Post by **izzarina** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 6:17 pm

It has been mentioned in another thread (one which I'd rather not muddy with such questions, hence my starting a new thread....although, really, if you must know, I'm still wanting permission to call Tal, "Tal" and if I hijack his thread he may never let me), that it is no longer necessary to use a period when writing Mr. or Mrs. I personally have never encountered such a thing, and find it to almost be blasphemous, but I'd like to see where such a thing has been introduced. Mr. (as well as Mrs.) is an abbreviation, which when shortened would require the proper punctuation...in this case, a period at the end of it. How on earth did this grammatical requirement become archaic?

no, I really have nothing better to do than post silly thread such as this one. Thank you for noticing

jsluder · Post by **jsluder** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 6:33 pm

izzarina wrote:How on earth did this grammatical requirement become archaic?

The same way the requirement to capitalize names and pseudonyms became archaic.

izzarina · Post by **izzarina** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 6:36 pm

jsluder wrote:
izzarina wrote:How on earth did this grammatical requirement become archaic?
The same way the requirement to capitalize names and pseudonyms became archaic.

Yeah yeah yeah, Mr. (notice the period! HA!) SmartyDuck. But notice you didn't answer my question.

jsluder · Post by **jsluder** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 6:42 pm

izzarina wrote:But notice you didn't answer my question.

You're right; I didn't. How rude of me.

SteveShaw · Post by **SteveShaw** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 6:58 pm

It isn't exactly a requirement. In America, "Mr." would not raise an eyebrow, whereas in the UK it may well do. The trend in the UK has been to drop the full stop in recognition of the fact that it serves no useful purpose. The fact that the last letter of the supposed word abbreviated, "Mister," is present in the abbreviation has helped towards the full stop's demise, as has the fact that the two related terms "Mrs" and Ms," though they look like abbreviations, are not actually short for anything at all.

Post by **Nanohedron** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 7:03 pm

For me, "Mrs." (or "Mrs", as you will - oops. There's me and that comma-after-quotemark thing again

) was always an abbreviation for "Missus", and "Ms." an abbreviation for the politically correct "Miz".

SteveShaw · Post by **SteveShaw** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 7:14 pm

"Mrs" cannot possibly be an abbreviation of "missus," as there is no letter r in "missus." Likewise, "Ms" cannot be an abbreviation of "Miz," as there is no letter z in "Ms."

Incidentally, note the constructions in bold letters. Even you would have to admit that a sentence ending with ..."missus". would be ludicrously illiterate, and one ending with ..."Ms.". would be even worse. I hope you can see it. Strictly speaking, I should have omitted those commas after "missus" and "Miz" above, but how else can I teach you this?

djm · Post by **djm** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 7:16 pm

So, Steve, since Mr = Mister = Master = Maitre, are you saying that "Maitre d'" is now become "Md" in your supposed correct English spelling? Sb!

djm

SteveShaw · Post by **SteveShaw** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 7:20 pm

djm wrote:So, Steve, since Mr = Mister = Master = Maitre, are you saying that "Maitre d'" is now become "Md" in your supposed correct English spelling? Sb!

djm

In five words (possibly only four) using three languages, my good man, a non-sequitur par excellence!

djm · Post by **djm** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 7:21 pm

Murky buckets.

djm

SteveShaw · Post by **SteveShaw** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 7:27 pm

Nanohedron wrote:the politically correct "Miz".

I have never regarded "Ms," or "Miz," as you put it, as politically-correct, with the pejorative undertones that the accusation implies. It seems quite right and proper to me that women, like men since time immemorial, should be able to use a title that does not reveal their marital status. This is just fair play, not political correctness.

BigDavy · Post by **BigDavy** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 7:27 pm

Hi Steve

I was under the impression that Mrs was a contraction of Mistress.

David

Post by **Nanohedron** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 7:32 pm

SteveShaw wrote:"Mrs" cannot possibly be an abbreviation of "missus," as there is no letter r in "missus." Likewise, "Ms" cannot be an abbreviation of "Miz," as there is no letter s in "Ms."

So in Britain, "Mrs." isn't pronounced "missus"? It is here, the "R" notwithstanding.

Steve Shaw wrote:Incidentally, note the constructions in bold letters. Even you would have to admit that a sentence ending with ..."missus". would be ludicrously illiterate, and one ending with "Ms.". would be even worse. I hope you can see it. Strictly speaking, I should have omitted those commas after "missus" and "Miz" above, but how else can I teach you this?

I wouldn't go so far as to say "illiterate", especially as regards "..."missus". ending a sentence. "Quirky" I'd admit to. You may convince me yet. Rest assured that I totally get your good intentions and appreciate them. As I've said, I know the convention, and I see the point you're making with Ms."..

Man. That's three periods/full stops one after the other, now.

SteveShaw · Post by **SteveShaw** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 7:34 pm

BigDavy wrote:Hi Steve

I was under the impression that Mrs was a contraction of Mistress.

David

Then we would pronounce "mistress," not "missies." In speech it's usual to use either the abbreviation ("pee emm's Question Time") or say the whole thing in full ("Prime Minister's Question Time"). I can't think of any sort of middle-way examples in which the pronounced version doesn't reflect both the abbreviation and the full form.

SteveShaw · Post by **SteveShaw** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 7:39 pm

anyhow its l8 this end and beds' calling and I ca'nt cope with anymore of this stuff about full stop's and all esp as you yank's keep calling them periods so whats that all about then! The carboniferous???!

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