carl
the house style at the newspaper i work for is not to capitalise animal names
except where derived form people or places, so Gould's petrel for instance
would stay up.?
re your earlier assertion that the breakdown in punctuation and grammar
"probably has originated in the media as a cost saving exercise, as it saves on
ink ..." you may have been being facetious but i think you'll find it
originated in informal forms of communication such as this and txt messages.
there is no doubt it is encroaching elsewhere. my father, who is a university
lecturer,?is occasionally horrified to mark essays and assignments?from
students?written in txt! (they fail.)??
as a member of the much maligned print media, most of us do our level best to
uphold the rules of grammar and punctuation and stem the tide of
americanisms.?the latter is a losing battle and one that has been going on in
english (australian and the queen's) much longer than many realise.
??
re this topic, a more pertinent question is: why do many birders refer to birds
in the singular: ie i saw 10 quail, 5 albatross etc? there seems to be no rhyme
or reason for it. they're not sheep, or fish.??
happy new year
shane b
ascot q
?
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