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From: alexander koryagin <koryagin@erec.ru>

Hi, Roy Witt!
I read your message from 09.10.2013 12:39

  ak>> Three boys from different countries met in some place. "Do you
  ak>> know," said the boy from Germany, "my grandfather is a priest and
  ak>> everybody calls him a holy father."

  RW> Hmmmm. Does Priest equate to Catholic here? Unless the grandfather
  RW> became a priest in his latter years, he couldn't have produced any
  RW> offspring because once he becomes a priest, he is married to the
  RW> church's founder.

    But, IMHO, any layman can become a monk and then get any rank of 
Church hierarchy. So, a priest could have children before his priesthood 
and have a grandson.

  ak>> "It's nothing," said the boy from Japan, "my grandfather is a Zen
  RW> "That's nothing", said the boy from Japan, - note the placement of
  RW> the comma and quotation marks in my correction/quote.

    IMHO, you've contradicted to punctuation rules. The way you put the 
comma after the quotation mark is described in a British English 
punctuation guide. But quotation (q.) marks must be different. It's like 
this:

British punctuation:
'It's nothing', said the boy from Japan, 'my grandfather is a Zen guru'.

American punctuation:
"It's nothing," said the boy from Japan, "my grandfather is a Zen guru."

    So if we use a double q. mark ["] we should use US punctuation 
rules, but if we use a single q. mark ['] we should use British punctuation.

In the American variant ['] is an additional q. mark, in the British 
variant ["].

Examples:

British punctuation:
'It's nothing', said the boy, 'my grandfather calls it "monkey business"'.

American punctuation:
"It's nothing," said the boy, "my grandfather calls it 'monkey business.'"

So my punctuation is American.

  ak>> guru and even Emperor touches his feet."
                     ^the

    Well, but I know that "President" is used without "the." It is the 
case when we speak of a unique state post and we write "President" with 
the fist capital letter. Should we do the same for Emperor?

Although, I found no single understanding of this matter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Wu_of_Ha...
[As a military campaigner, Emperor Wu led Han China through its greatest 
expansion]

But

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/gask/t...
The Emperor Charlemagne was a splendid horseman.

IMHO there is no logic, but, IMHO, the first capital letter in 
President/Emperor implies uniqueness and "the" becomes unnecessary.

Bye, Roy!
Alexander Koryagin
fido7.english-tutor 2013
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