[PW] Re: THANKS: Re: ?punctuation question

[John P. Dyson]

Quoting John Henderson <jhenderson at ithaca.edu>:

> Thanks to Bonnie, Druzz, Jean, Joanna, and others for suggestions
> regarding my punctuation question. I didn't see my question posted, so
> it might have been one of the ones that didn't get through to the whole
> list.
>
> John Henderson
>
> John Henderson wrote:
> > Where would you add the commas in this sentence:
>>  When I've been asked the question "What did your father do in the
> war?" my reply has been "He tasted
>>  butter."


John, if I remember correctly, you asked for a rule and a cite and 
since I didn't see either in a response, here goes something. The use 
of commas to set off quoted matter is more a convention than a rule, 
and it seems to be governed by position in the utterance and often but 
not always by the length of the quoted material as well. ("Kiss off," 
she said. She said "kiss off.")

In your example, the punctuation might reasonably be

When I've been asked the question, "What did your father do in the 
war?," my reply has been, "He tasted butter." The question mark and 
comma inside the quotes is fairly standard American punctuation, 
although interrogation marks and exclamations often lack that comma, no 
doubt to avoid typo-clutter.

Two sources where "often," "frequently" and "usually" accompany these 
pointers are Porter G. Perrin, _Writer's Guide and Index to English_ 
and William K. Watt, _An American Rhetoric_.


John Dyson
Spanish and Portuguese
Indiana University