[West Ender]

Originally Posted by Eric

Punctuation is not all that important. The example you chose is so obviously a joke with mildly salacious undertones, that it illustrates little, other than that humans have a sense of humour. Most readers, if left alone, will punctuate naturally. Many authors have exhibited an almost complete disregard for punctuation. Dickens, for example, left punctuation, to his editor and his publisher. He was determined that the substantives were left untouched; but didn't give a damn about the accidentals. And language, I believe, is always intelligible among the members of a linguistic community; although outside that community it may cause some confusion. There is, though, a sort of "standard" English which is intelligible for all English speakers, whether they come from Accrington or Come By Chance, Newfoundland. But concentrating too much on standards, ignores the richness and diversity of English as it has evolved. And however we feel about the process, English will continue to evolve in spite of any and every effort to standardize it.

I didn't mean to select a mildly salacious joke, I just couldn't think of anything else off-hand.