I hesitate to waste time on the matter of the missing comma (alleged) raised in the letters column last week by Michael Moorey, of West Hendred. But since he has picked nits, I shall too.
Mr Moorey claims that by omitting a comma from ‘diet old boy’, I “turned it from a gentle admonition to the cheery gent in question into a strict injunction to him to lose weight!” (the screamer is Mr Moorey’s). I do not accept that this is the case.
My meaning is perfectly clear in the context of what precedes the phrase. Besides, “diet, old boy” is what I would need to have written in order to say what Mr Moorey thinks I said.
This may easily be seen if one replaces ‘diet’ with another verb, say ‘reconsider’, and ‘old boy’ with a proper name, say ‘Michael’.
“Reconsider Michael” would mean something entirely different from “Reconsider, Michael” (which he should).
My dictionary, incidentally, defines ‘admonition’ as “a gentle, friendly reproof”. So a gentle admonition . . .?
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