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Subject:Re: comma splice? From:Kim Ballard <ballardk -at- MACE -dot- CC -dot- PURDUE -dot- EDU> Date:Sat, 5 Feb 1994 09:30:12 EST
Two quick points:
(1) I had no trouble reading the sentence under debate. The
particular type of comma splice didn't require me to stop and think
about the meaning at all.
(2) The particular type of comma splice is also quite common in
written, hard-copy, British English. Now, to connect this thread
to the thread on "What-Have-The-Brits" that American's (US & Canadians?) don't
have, I'd suggest that by some Standard American written, hard-copy
rules, the Brits must have a heck of a lot more comma splices.
You know, although D.H. Lawrence, Doris Lessing, and Iris Murdoch are
*not* my favorite writers, I've never had any problems understanding
their British English prose. But William Faulkner and Virginia
Hamilton, two Southern American writers, I often struggle with, even
though I'm pretty sure both avoid the particular type of comma splice
about which we've been nitpicking. Those two writers happen to be among my
current favorite writers but their syntax can be tough as well as
grammatically/mechanically correct.
--
Kim Ballard
Purdue University
ballardk -at- mace -dot- cc -dot- purdue -dot- edu
