I have two thoughts on this (amazing that my brain can fucntion so well, isn't it?):
1. If Bruce is right (and I think he is -- having thought the phrase, "What a paradox" was eliptical before I read his response), then 'a paradox' becoems s subject ccomplement for 'it'. Or, I guess, it makes it a subject (but iof the elided 'is' -- not the one in the clause about the Internet.
2. I think that Christine might have been better off to ask, "How might this be punctuated?" rather than "How should this be punctuated?" -- there are more possibilities than the two supplied.
Paul
Bruce Despain <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Christine,
It is hard to disagree with Herb. One little observation, however. I think something needs to be said about the possibility that "what" in an exclamative is a modifier of the article. I am more comfortable with the exclamative being a full NP. This would make "what a paradox" parallel to "many a paradox." The full form would be "What a paradox (it is)!" rather than "What (is) a paradox" (! for ?) or "What a paradox (is is)," which both seem vapid at best. (These last two involve the so-called headless relative, which I prefer to call the indefinite noun clause.)
Bruce
>>> [log in to unmask] 8/5/2004 8:21:13 AM >>>
Christine,
I like your second version. The problem with the first is that it makes a difference what the subject of "is" is, to paraphrase a well-known Rhodes Scholar. Grammatically, the sujbect has to be "a paradox", and what's within commas is an appositive. However, "a paradox" is also the complement of "what" in an exclamatory sentence. Exclamations beginning with wh-words typically lack verbs, just "what" + NP. So "a paradox" is being asked to play to grammatical roles at once, something that doesn't usually work well. The reader is tempted to make "the Internet" the subject, but then the sentence becomes a comma splice.
Herb
Dear Group,
How should this be punctuated?
What a paradox, the Internet, the very cutting edge of communication
technology, is creating an anti-social society.
What a paradox! The Internet, the very cutting edge of communication
technology, is creating an anti-social society.
Christine Martin
_________________________________________________________________
Is your PC infected? Get a FREE online computer virus scan from McAfeeŽ
Security. http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963
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/
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This message may contain confidential information, and is
intended only for the use of the individual(s) to whom it
is addressed.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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/
"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction" (_Twelfth Night_ 3.4.127-128).
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/
|
