a bit Ye Olde, but otherwise all right
Today I'm reading Joy in the Morning, which has restored my love for Wodehouse to its previous pitch, after that teensy tiny wobble when I tried to cope with The Coming of Bill. In fact, my love hit an all-time high when I got to this part:'But he loves, Uncle Percy.'
'Has he got an uncle Percy?'
I saw that unless prompt steps were taken, we should be getting muddled.
'When I say He loves, Uncle Percy,' I explained, 'I don't mean he loves, verb transitive, Uncle Percy, accusative. I mean he loves, comma, Uncle Percy, exclamation mark.'
Even while uttering the words, I had had a fear lest I might be making the thing a shade too complex for one in the relative's condition. And so it proved.
'Bertie,' he said, gravely, 'I should have watched you more carefully. You're tighter than I am.'
'No, no.'
'Then just go over that observation of yours again slowly. I would be the last man to dispute that my faculties are a little blurred, but--'
'I only said, that he loved, and shoved in an "Uncle Percy" at the end of my remarks.'
'Addressing me, you mean?'
'Yes.'
'In the vocative, as it were?'
'That's right.'
See, even Bertie Wooster can explain that there's quite a difference between "He loves, Uncle Percy" and "He loves Uncle Percy," and would no doubt also agree that there's a quite crucial change in meaning from "That's terrible, Charlie" to "That's terrible Charlie," or "I can't see, Harry!" and "I can't see Harry!" A comma is a lovesome thing, God wot! At least in the right place.
'Has he got an uncle Percy?'
I saw that unless prompt steps were taken, we should be getting muddled.
'When I say He loves, Uncle Percy,' I explained, 'I don't mean he loves, verb transitive, Uncle Percy, accusative. I mean he loves, comma, Uncle Percy, exclamation mark.'
Even while uttering the words, I had had a fear lest I might be making the thing a shade too complex for one in the relative's condition. And so it proved.
'Bertie,' he said, gravely, 'I should have watched you more carefully. You're tighter than I am.'
'No, no.'
'Then just go over that observation of yours again slowly. I would be the last man to dispute that my faculties are a little blurred, but--'
'I only said, that he loved, and shoved in an "Uncle Percy" at the end of my remarks.'
'Addressing me, you mean?'
'Yes.'
'In the vocative, as it were?'
'That's right.'
See, even Bertie Wooster can explain that there's quite a difference between "He loves, Uncle Percy" and "He loves Uncle Percy," and would no doubt also agree that there's a quite crucial change in meaning from "That's terrible, Charlie" to "That's terrible Charlie," or "I can't see, Harry!" and "I can't see Harry!" A comma is a lovesome thing, God wot! At least in the right place.