Showing posts with label Question-comma (urgent necessity of). Show all posts
Showing posts with label Question-comma (urgent necessity of). Show all posts

Monday, 2 July 2012

On the urgent necessity of the question-comma: 1

Where are my Frosties,* you arsehole?
Here it is clearly seen that the question (concerning the whereabouts of the Frosties) is over and done with by the time we get to the vocative flourish at the cadence.

One's intonation would, equally obviously, make that plain; but the way it is traditionally written means that it appears a) that the arseholeishness of the Frostie-thief is also somehow in doubt, and b) that the speaker's voice should keep going up in pitch until the end of the sentence - e.g. in the manner of an Australian?

* this being the place where the question-comma should go