On Mon, Jul 20, 2009 at 4:59 PM, Simon Austin <si...@auzsoft.net> wrote:
> Evigheden wrote: > > I don't know how is it in English, but in Poland there is a law about > > Polish language and the special council (members are mainly best > > linguists and professors from physics, medicine, law, logic, etc.), > > which regulate the all rules about spelling, punctuation, etc. in > > every aspect of language (also how to use dash in chemical formulas). > > General rules are included in nearly every orthographic dictionary and > > it's like any other law - all official documents ought to follow them > > and in most cases if someone break them it is simply treated as a > > mistake. Probably in English (British? American?) there is also some > > set of official rules, so before making the attempt to develop > > position about punctuation in MusicBrainz it would be wise to find > > some documents similar to Polish dictionary and check, because - I can > > say it as a student of linguistics - common point of view can be > > really misleading. > No, there's no official rules for English. It's mainly down to > convention, opportunity and force of will. Most places that work with > the written word will maintain their own style guide (eg the gruaniad: > http://www.guardian.co.uk/styleguide/a and The Times: > http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/tools_and_services/specials/style_guide/). > > As for our Style, the serial comma in a list is really only needed to > prevent ambiguity; and I don't think that's much of a worry here. I'd > get rid of the comma in the first two examples below and replace it with > an ampersand in the third. > > - Si: chiark > > *"TrackTitle, Parts 1–3, & 5"* - Four or more parts, containing a > range spanning more than two parts as well as a non-consequtive part > *"TrackTitle, Parts One – Three, & Five"* - Four or more parts, > containing a range spanning more than two parts as well as a > non-consequtive part > *"TrackTitle, Parts One, Three – Five"* - Four or more parts, > containing a range spanning more than two parts as well as a > I'm willing to be flexible; the lack of a serial comma looks seriously wrong to me, but given that it's debatable in English, and many have pointed out it simply being incorrect in language xyz, I'd be willing to drop it from the guideline. Brian
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