
It’s been a while since my last post. Far too long, really. I have no excuse, but it’s amazing how life goes quickly when you’re distracted by a million things. Life has changed, everything goes at record pace these days. From developments in medicine, to how social media has affected marketing, the list is endless. Choose a topic and you have an example. Who remembers the cassette player? Who remembers what they had for dinner last Wednesday?
It got me thinking as to how language adapts itself in this ever changing world. More rules are being relaxed and adapted that can be. Take the vocative comma for example. The vocative case means that you address someone directly, so the vocative comma points you to who that is, e.g. “Hi, Heather” or “I don’t know, John?”. If you omit the comma in “Hi, Heather”, “Hi Heather” still has the same meaning, However, “I don’t know, John” is different to “I don’t know John”. So, for instance, using “Hi Heather” in an email and finishing it with “Thanks Wee Bear Editing” is acceptable these days – so long as the vocative comma is consistently used, or not used, whatever is your choice.