[lug] [Way OT] English Grammar

[rm at fabula.de]

On Sun, Apr 21, 2002 at 07:30:06PM -0600, Daniel Webb wrote:
> > > BTW, I have BCCed your grade school English teacher.  I thought she'd like to
> > > know you are running around starting sentences with "And."
> >
> > I know this was meant in jest. And I generally don't mind grammar nazis
> > if they get it right. The world needs more geeks that can write
> > coherently in human readable languages. But the last time that the rule
> > above applied *was* in grammar school. That rule exists because simple
> > minds need simple rules. The sentence in question was, in this respect,
> > grammatically correct.
> >
> > I think you are old enough now that we can let you in on the secret of
> > starting sentences with conjuntions.
> >
> > http://www.getitwriteonline.com/archive/032601.htm
> >
> > And thus ends the grammar lesson for the day, kids! ;-)
> 
>   I have noticed that this construction is being used more and more.  In
> general, I think it leads to weaker paragraph structure.  But I'm no
> linguist.

To me it seems to be less a question of grammatical correctness but rather 
one of style. I personally think of mailing list communication as something
closer to spoken language then to the written language tought in grammar school.
But then, my linguistic training was in a different language.

>   Yes, I did that on purpose.


and now for something completely differnet ...

  Ralf 
> 
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