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> > I get your meaning, Bruce. You think it's an absurd question.
No, not absurd. What fascinates me is the amount of passion that grammatical
questions can generate.
I have an opinion on the subject, and I've stated it. But I don't feel
passionate about it - more matter-of-fact, if anything. I've answered the
question to my own satisfaction, and that's where my interest ends.
> assuming, as most of us do, that standards originate in the need for
clarity)?
I don't make this assumption at all. Sometimes, standards are simply the effort
of those of us who are educated to impose our beliefs on others. More
realistically, standards are simply common usage of one group of speakers or
writers. That's why there are two views of whether to use a comma in the
original example; there are two competing standards at work.
My own view is that standards are worth supporting when they aid clarity or
forcefulness of expression, and should be thrown out when they lessen it.
>How about I just stop using a colon
> after
> the salutation in a business letter?
What if you did? Punctuation as we know it is a relatively new innovation.
About the only punctuation used by the Romans was a bullet point between words -
and even that wasn't used consistently. Medieval manuscripts didn't use much,
either. Yet the lack didn't prevent effective writing.
In the case of a salutation, we could do without the colon quite easily. The
fact that the salutation is on a line by itself helps us to know the function
of the phrase, as well as "Dear" or "Hello."
I don't deny that I would feel strange not seeing it. However, I also have
enough sense of history and of linguistics to know that my conventions aren't
necessarily shared by everybody else.
--
Bruce Byfield bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com 604-421.7177
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