Re: [Groff] Getting properly rendered single quotes in groff

[Peter Schaffter]

On Sat, Jun 07, 2008, Clarke Echols wrote:
> One of my great discoveries in life was encountering the reality
> that English grammar is not an exact science.  There are rules --
> true, but the key to effective writing is knowing the rules well
> enough to know *how* to break them *correctly*.

Agreement here.  My way of phrasing it is: There are rules, and
there are principles.  Grasp the principles, and you don't have to
think about the rules.  Rather like the spirit of the law rather
than its letter.

> (I have great empathy for those who must master English as a
> second language.)

So do I.  I'm glad it's one I got early on in life.

> So let me pose a question:
>
> For those who might quibble it should be rendered:
> >
> >     He told me: "That is a silly idea.  I never said such a thing."
>
> How do the quibblers determine when to use a comma versus a colon?

Quibblers are sticking to the former rule that if a gloss precedes
dialog (properly, the "quote" or "quotation", but fiction writers
tend to use dialog to mean any spoken words between quotation
marks), the dialog's preceded by a colon.  If the gloss comes
afterwards, a comma, naturally, precedes the closing double-quote.

Hence,

    She shouted: "I can't see him from here."

    "I can't see him from here," she shouted.

The colon's a tad old-fashioned, but I frequently encounter places
where it's more expressive than the comma.

> And thanks for agreeing with me.  My wife once asked me, "Why do
> you have to be right all the time?"
>
> When I explained, "I don't have to be --I just am," that didn't
> help the situation a bit. :-)

And now you know why I stay a bachelor. :)

-- 
Peter Schaffter