RE: "and then," or simply "then"?

["Downing, David" <DavidDowning -at- users -dot- com>]

------------------------------

Message: 35
Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2008 10:20:44 -0400
From: "Bonnie Granat" <bgranat -at- granatedit -dot- com>
Subject: RE: "and then," or simply "then"?
To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Message-ID: <5E9CBF6505CE40AAA8AFD245F5D52B7D -at- GranatEditOne>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="US-ASCII"
From: "Bonnie Granat" <bgranat -at- granatedit -dot- com>
Subject: RE: "and then," or simply "then"?


> -----Original Message-----
> From: 
> techwr-l-bounces+bgranat=granatedit -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com 
> [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+bgranat=granatedit -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l
> .com] On Behalf Of Downing, David
> Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2008 10:05 AM
> To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Subject: RE: "and then," or simply "then"?
> 
> I think this is another one of those cases of linguistic drift vs.
> linguistic corruption. These days, it seems okay to just use 
> the "then"
> by itself with a comma, and thus treat "then" as if it were a 
> conjunction rather than an adverb. And I must confess, this 
> one doesn't bother me as much as the lay/lie thing.
> 

You my down I at look nose, David.

----------------------------------------------

I think you're indulging in a little reduction ad absurdum here.

But this reminds me of a famous example of a sentence that's
grammatically correct, yet sounds very awkward and unnatural. The
speaker was talking about ending a sentence with a preposition, and
said, "This is a practice up with which I will not put."

I agree that glaringly bad grammar is disturbing, and that as writers,
we should always show others, by example, the correct way to do things.
But when it gets to the point of writing statements that sound downright
unnatural, that's another story.

David
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