Re: grammar tricks

["Carol Finke" <finkec@k2.kirtland.cc.mi.us>]

> Date:          Thu, 21 Nov 1996 22:43:05 -0600
> Reply-to:      wcenter@ttacs6.ttu.edu
> From:          Margaret Clark <clark@uhdux2.dt.uh.edu>
> To:            Multiple recipients of list <wcenter@ttacs6.ttu.edu>
> Subject:       Re: grammar tricks

> On Thu, 21 Nov 1996, Carol Finke wrote:
> > I know you don't want to hear anything more about this, but I can't 
> > resist taking you up on the series: commas in a series separate the 
> > items in the series rather than joining them, for those commas take 
> > the place of conjunctions (so that we don't have to write/say things like, 
> > "pizza with pepperoni and mushrooms and onions and 
> > extra cheese and anchovies").
> > 
> > Carol
> 
> Oh, Carol, it's perfectly ok for you to say more; especially when it's 
> really good. You're right. In a way. But -- using your elements -- ahem 
> -- if the commas are replacing conjunctions, wouldn't we at least have to 
> consider that they were performing the same function as conjunctions? I 
> mean, if there is a deep structure for punctuation (god, what a thought 
> -- tell me there isn't) then the little things would be -- joining? 

Well, Margaret, I'm with you on the "tell me there isn't" here.  I 
don't think that saying commas  keep us from having 
to repeat conjunctions over and over in a series is the same thing as 
saying they serve the same function (just as I wouldn't say that the 
apostrophe in a contraction serves the same function as the missing 
words -- instead, it signals to the reader that letters have been 
omitted and a new word made by joining other words).

Nevertheless, the more I think about it, the more I think the 
join/separate distinction is pretty arbitrary.  After all, don't 
semi-colons not only join two independent clauses within one sentence 
but also separate them for the reader?  This strikes me as a true 
"trick" (as opposed to a trick?) -- it may help some students, but it 
certainly wouldn't stand up to those students who like to scrutinize 
one's explanations.
> 
> You can have my queen. I'm all wore out. 
> 
> I fel like I'm in a Monty Python movie.

And now for something completely different . . . 
> 
> G'night!
> 
> 
> 
Carol G. Finke
Writing Center Coordinator, Kirtland Community College
Roscommon, MI 48653
517-275-5121 ext. 386
finkec@k2.kirtland.cc.mi.us
Any teacher who can be replaced by a computer should be. --B.F.Skinner