Quoting and Quotations

When I am speaking…..

I love quotations and I use them regularly in everyday conversation, from telling my son that he looks like the ‘wreck of the Hesperus’ to passing on my grandmothers warning to ‘never trust a man in green trousers’. I don’t usually read newspapers, but I often quote things I heard on Radio 4 or read on the internet. I quote the Bible sometimes, especially Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, my favourite is Proverbs 16.30 from the Good News translation, ‘beware of the man who grins and winks at you, for he has thought something evil’. I don’t quote Shakespeare except accidentally, I am aware that a number of familiar idioms have their roots in Shakespeare’s writing. I was inoculated against Shakespeare at school and I have had no desire to renew my acquaintance with his work since, but I will happily tackle almost anything else – even Beowulf. I don’t really quote jokes as such, but certain comedy phrases creep into our speech without being noticed, even from programs I don’t like such as Catherine Tate’s ‘am I bovered’ or the ramblings of the dreadful Vicki Pollard from Little Britain. I sometimes quote poems, I love poetry and I know loads by heart so it is hard to stop it creeping into my speech from time to time.

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I quote my grandma quite a lot, she died over thirty years ago, but she had an opinion on everything and she was never afraid to share it. As I have got older I see more comedy in her words, but she had lived through two world wars as an adult as well as an especially hard childhood so she had an understanding of what really mattered in life. When she felt unappreciated she used to say ‘you’ll miss me when I’m gone’ that has become a family saying for when someone is having a self pitying moment.

When I am talking I don’t usually care if people know I am quoting or not. I will sometimes say “as my Grandma used to say” but sometimes I just use the quote and assume the listener recognises it. I hate it when people create inverted commas with their hands while they are speaking, it is really irritating. I am not fussy about when I use quotations, they just pop up in everyday speech, it is not really a conscious decision. I have a couple of books of quotations and a couple of books of the origins of phrases, I use them to look things up as and when I need to. I am fascinated to know why some things have become part of everyday speech.

When I am writing……
I use quotation marks. If I am reporting direct speech I use double inverted commas but if I am using a familiar quotation I just use single inverted commas. I also use single inverted commas around certain words to give emphasis or to be ironic, I tend to do this mainly when writing my blog. I can do much the same just by choosing my words carefully.

I think I understand the rules of speech fairly well, using quotation marks for direct speech but not for indirect speech. I do sometimes have a wobble about how often I need to start a new line when writing dialogue, but I know really, I just have the odd crisis of confidence. I behave in the same way when writing by hand, using email or word processing, I had a very traditional education and I can’t bring myself to deviate from the rules. I still refuse to write in blue ink, I can’t even write a shopping list on lined paper and I can’t cope with text language at all! My children think I am funny and they often tease me for writing texts in perfect English with all the necessary punctuation!

Other people’s quoting?
I react differently when other people quote, I find some people pretentious while others do it in a way that is interesting or amusing; depending on the person It can either increase or diminish their authority.

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When I read I notice quotation marks, and I try to use the correct voice in my head, but I am not good at accents so I struggle with authors such as Patricia Cornwall and Kathy Reichs because their dialogue does not sound right in an English accent. I prefer to buy unabridged audio books instead because it is easier to understand when read in the correct ‘voice’. I don’t remember any of my children having too many problems learning to recognise or use quotation marks. Until recently my son tended to avoid using dialogue in his writing, he was too lazy to make the effort, but at the grand old age of 14 he has a new found confidence and he is no longer phased by quotation marks.