comma=because

[Grant Barrett]

On mercredi 24 janvier 2001 08:27, Greg Pulliam <pulliam at IIT.EDU> wrote:
>Does it seem to anyone else that the type of "comma splice"
>exemplified in
>
>"We can probably wait on the software for now, I don't think it will
>be a problem."
>
>(where the comma takes the place of "because" or "since") is becoming
>more and more common in written correspondence?  This is the third or
>fourth instance I've seen in less than a week, leading me to think
>that it may be moving toward respectability.

I've been reading like a madman over the past few weeks, catching up on all the
English-language books a and lit I put off while reading French this past semester, and I
gotta say, except in email and online forums (that is to say, excepting all material
that could not reasonably have been said to pass before an editor), the only place
I've seen the dreaded comma splice lately is in French. If I ever become a fluent
French writer, I vow to never use the comma splice. It makes my skin crawl and my hand
creep up to tick in a fat, round period every time. Split infinitives are okay,
however.

--
Grant Barrett
http://www.worldnewyork.org/