Friend theory and grammar

[leftyjew]

I'm interested in the ideas I was talking about last night with ML relating to what she calls "friend theory".

By the way, a grammar question: We put a phrase or word in quotes when we're treating it as an object in itself, devoid of meaning. E.g.:

• I like the way the "pickles" sounds (referring to the word, not the appetizer)
• She called roses "love flowers"
• "Occasional" is a difficult word to spell

Great... but where do we put the punctuation marks that happen to succeed that phrase? My instinct is that in a true quotation, the punctuation is actually part of the quote, and in a phrase quote it is not. But it never looks right. Here's what I mean:

• She told me, "You typed poorly," but I think I typed all right.
• She told me you typed "poorly", but I think I typed "all right".

Am I correct? (Note that she's addressing my typing in the first statement and your typing in the second.)
This actually lines up neatly with my practice of adding an "'s" (apostrophe-s) after proper names that end in "s". For example:

• "Stevens's house" implies that the house's owner is Stevens
• "Steven's house" implies that the house is owned by Steven
• "Stevens' house" implies plurality - that either more than one Steven owns the house or perhaps a family named Steven.

What do you all think?

Comments

[alanscottevil.livejournal.com]

you are totally right

[leftyjew.livejournal.com]

Another friend says it should be:
She told me you typed "poorly," but I think I typed "all right."
Note the difference in punctuation location.

[lec210.livejournal.com]

As the dorky tutor at the GW Writing Center that I was, I had to sit through a semester long grammar class (well, there were other things but it was mostly grammar). You're right on all except the last one. The first and last Stevens' and Stevens's are both imply that there's either more than one Steven or a family named Stevens and are both equally correct. It's up to the writer to choose. At least that's what they taught us.