comma=because

[Beverly Flanigan]

At 10:56 PM 1/24/01 -0500, you wrote:
>As another writer reported, some style manuals allow this sort of
>punctuation.  Obviously, as we all know, the rules are flexible
>and a sensitive writer uses them flexibly.  The coarse grain of
>English punctuation doesn't allow us to write a lot of things we
>can say, but your example shows how close we can come.
>
>Herb
>
><<< dcamp911 at JUNO.COM  1/24  7:30p >>>
>On Wed, 24 Jan 2001 13:11:45 -0500 Herb Stahlke
><HSTAHLKE at GW.BSU.EDU>
>writes:
> > This sort of error is as common as it is because English
> > punctuation does not allow us to mark something that speech
>marks
> > very nicely.
>
>I must admit that I do this myself. I write a column that is
>deliberately
>-- some would say cloyingly (in fact some HAVE said cloyingly) --
>conversational. And I have always believed that if you know the
>rules, in
>the absence of an American Academy, you are free to break them. So
>I
>occasionally separate two independent clauses with a comma as a
>break
>weaker than a semicolon. For example: "I didn't do anything in
>particular, it just happened." It is sort of the grammatical
>equivalent
>of a "rolling stop" at a stop sign.
>
>D

And I do this too, especially, as you say, with short, "rolling"
clauses.  My favorite college mentor insisted we never begin a sentence
with "and," "but," or "so"--but now I often do in informal writing.  (He
wouldn't like that dash/two hyphens either.)

_____________________________________________
Beverly Olson Flanigan         Department of Linguistics
Ohio University                     Athens, OH  45701
Ph.: (740) 593-4568              Fax: (740) 593-2967
http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/linguistics/dept/flanigan.htm