I agree that it's not a problem for Zwicky's description (which,
thanks to Herb, I now have a clearer picture of), but sentences---
indeed, paragraphs---beginning with FANBOYS connectives are quite a
problem for a great many English teachers, even though as Craig
pointed out earlier, college handbooks have never banned the
practice. Warriner neither approved nor disapproved, but a recent
Warriner clone warns against the practice in "formal writing."
Ed
On May 14, 2009, at 9:18 PM, STAHLKE, HERBERT F wrote:
> I don't think a for-initial fragment where "for" means "because"
> would be a problem for Zwicky's description, precisely because it's
> a fragment and so would be interpretable as being the second of two
> clauses, the first being ellipted.
>
> Herb
>
> Herbert F. W. Stahlke, Ph.D.
> Emeritus Professor of English
> Ball State University
> Muncie, IN 47306
> [log in to unmask]
> ________________________________________
> From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [[log in to unmask]
> ] On Behalf Of Edgar Schuster [[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: May 14, 2009 2:22 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Equivalent expressions
>
> Ah, I suppose Arnold and I are talking about two different things.
> Let me give an example from Oates of what I am talking about, an
> example that has many interesting features---fragments especially---
> besides the initial "for," which starts not only a sentence but also a
> new paragraph.
>
> The "Weidel house," it would be called for years. The Weidel
> property." As if the very land---which the family had not owned in
> any case, but only rented, partly with county-welfare support---were
> somehow imprinted with that name, a man's identity. Or infamy.
> For tales were told of the father who drank, beat and terrorized
> his
> family . . . .
>
> Ed
>
> On May 14, 2009, at 2:02 PM, STAHLKE, HERBERT F wrote:
>
>> Ed,
>>
>> I assume you mean the coordinate clause introduced by "for" comes
>> before the clause that it's coordinate with. I don't have a copy of
>> Oates and Atwan. You might send these examples to Arnold. He would
>> find them interesting.
>>
>> Herb
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]
>> ] On Behalf Of Edgar Schuster
>> Sent: 2009-05-14 12:42
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: Equivalent expressions
>>
>> Herb,
>> I read the Zwicky article, and thanks for it, but I am puzzled by
>> his
>> stance that "for" cannot be used sentence initially. (I hope I
>> haven't misunderstood what he is saying.) Joyce Carol Oates uses
>> "for" initially six times in her 1995 essay, "They All Just Went
>> Away." Susan Sontag uses the same word initially five times in her
>> "Notes on 'Camp'."
>> And this is not a new phenomenon. In "The Handicapped" (1911)
>> "for"
>> is used by Randolph Bourne in sentence initial position 16 times, I
>> believe. It's also used, though much more rarely, by several other
>> writers.
>> (All these essays may be found in "The Best American Essays of the
>> Century" by Oates and Atwan.)
>>
>> Ed S
>>
>> On May 14, 2009, at 11:58 AM, STAHLKE, HERBERT F wrote:
>>
>>> English has a lot of equivalent expressions that attract the
>>> attention of writing teachers and grammarians. Consider because/
>>> for, however/but, which/that, much/a lot, and others you can
>>> probably come up with yourself. Here's a link (http://arnoldzwicky.wordpress.com/2008/12/28/forbecause/
>>> ) to an extraordinarily lucid and insightful posting on the topic by
>>> that extraordinarily lucid and insightful grammarian Arnold Zwicky.
>>> Follow the internal links, and you'll see a subtle, perceptive, and
>>> witty mind at work.
>>>
>>> Enjoy!
>>>
>>> Herbert F. W. Stahlke, Ph.D.
>>> Emeritus Professor of English
>>> Ball State University
>>> Muncie, IN 47306
>>> [log in to unmask]
>>> To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web
>>> interface at:
>>> http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
>>> and select "Join or leave the list"
>>>
>>> Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/
>>
>> To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web
>> interface at:
>> http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
>> and select "Join or leave the list"
>>
>> Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/
>>
>> To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web
>> interface at:
>> http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
>> and select "Join or leave the list"
>>
>> Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/
>
> To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web
> interface at:
> http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
> and select "Join or leave the list"
>
> Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/
>
> To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web
> interface at:
> http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
> and select "Join or leave the list"
>
> Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/
To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
and select "Join or leave the list"
Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/
|
