Writing a pre-Christmas email I discovered an oddity concerning the
punctuation of an adverbial clause of reason (beginning with 'because').

Compare these two sentences:

(A)  You can open the box, because the lock is a cheap one.
(B)  You can open the box because the lock is a cheap one.

Imagine a context round (A) in which the speaker is giving the addressee
permission to open the box by damaging the lock, which, because of its
cheapness, the speaker, who owns it, does not mind.  The comma -- and a
pause in speech -- seem right for such a meaning.  There is no suggestion
that the poorness of the lock will make it easy to open:  indeed, the
opposite might be the case.

In (B) the speaker appears to be explaining that, because the box has a poor
lock, it can be easily opened.  The question of ownership of box and lock is
here irrelevant.  The absence of the comma and the pause seems to indicate
this second meaning -- though why I've no idea!

Edmond Wright


Dr. Edmond Wright
3 Boathouse Court
Trafalgar Road
Cambridge
CB4 1DU
England

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Website: http://people.pwf.cam.ac.uk/elw33/
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