Help. My name is Stacey, and I'm addicted to using "quotes" around words that don't really need them. I've only recently broken the habit of using air quotes (do you know how badly I wanted to put quote marks around air quotes--it's a sickness I tell you!!! And yes, I do know that I did it in the first line of the entry -- that was intentional.
Quote marks around a single word are meant to indicate some kind of unusual or additional meaning to a word, usually a sarcastic connotation, I believe. But honestly, I have a terrible time wrapping my mind around the circumstances in which it is acceptable to do this. So, I end up doing it all the time and wrongly most of the time, I wager.
This is like when I was much younger (though it occasionally still happens) and read a great deal. So much so that my vocabulary outpaced my actual need for the word in conversation. Consequently, I heard the word in my head the way I thought it should sound, not at all the way it was actually pronounced. Then I would proceed to use the word in conversation at some later date and mangle it. The French words are particularly difficult. Lingerie was lin-ger-eee in my head. Which makes sense if you think about it. Linger is in the word lingerie. Facade was Fa-kade. Soldered was...well, sol-dered, not "soddered." Stupid French words. Stupid quote marks.
A couple of years ago, I embarrassed myself with a client by pronouncing constituents. Con-sti-tuents instead of con-stitch-uents. I knew what it meant, damnit. How often does any one ever use that word anyway!?!
So, does anyone out there have any quick and easily grasped rule of thumb about when to use quotes around a single word? I seem to recall an entire Friends episode about this.
Help me stop before I experience further chagrin (or as I pronounced as a child, char-grin. I got an extra "r" in there somehow. Don't ask... Damnit. I used quote marks again, this time around the "r." Which I'm pretty sure is an acceptable usage. But still!!! Help!)
: )
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4 comments:
LOL, Stacey. Maybe there is a 12-step program... Or a "12-step" program.....
Suzanne
Stace,
Not sure about 12-steps, but there may be a one-step approach you could try. Check out the book EATS, SHOOTS & LEAVES...it might not help with your quote fetish, but as a writer you might appreciate the other fine grammar distinctions it offers : )
Oh, and yes, there was a Friends episode devoted to air quotes -- more to the point, Joey's inability to use them correctly. Very funny (like the TBS tag line).
Stac
I've heard of these "twelve step programs". Please tell me "more" about it.
Also, some people just don't know how to "recommend" a book. You need "links" damnit. This is the "internet". Everyone's lazy so you have to give them a link or they won't go "find" it. SO, here's Eats, Shoots and Leaves.
I actually asked for, and received, Eats, Shoots and Leaves for Christmas! It's in my stack of books to be read. Along with about ten others. *sigh*
But thanks for the support for my "problem" (ha! Do you see? I put quote marks around the...oh, never mind).
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