Sophie:

I understand your argument, and the principles you state hold in most
cases. There are exceptions, however. Sidney Greenbaum, in The Oxford
English Grammar, writes, "Two independent clauses are occasionally
juxtaposed, separated by a comma without a co-ordinator, particularly if
they are short and parallel." He cites two quotations from novels. One is
from Mary Gaitskill: "Hippies are cool, greasers are fools." Another is
from Joseph O'Connor: "It was nobody's fault, that was the thing to
remember" (1996, pp. 530-31).

Another exception can occur when two independent clauses have a strongly
implied "in spite of A, B" relationship. One often sees in print sentences
punctuated like the following:

I don't care what you say, I'm going ahead with my plans.
It doesn't matter what they do to us, we'll always have each other.

You can find similar examples in most style manuals.

Dick Veit

At 11:03 AM 6/28/2001, you wrote:
>Richard, there is a structural difference between:
>
>(i) It doesn't matter what we have in common, we will always have
>something to talk about.
>and:
>(ii) No matter what you may have done, I still love you.
>
>Sentence (ii) is structured such that a dependent sentence leads an
>independent one. That enables the comma.
>
>The (i) structures are two independent sentences. Even if a semantic
>relationship obtains between them they remain two sentences. And they are
>not two sentences that constitute a list. (The comma splices independent
>sentences only when they are each items of a list.) So there is no role
>for a comma between them.
>
>Sophie
>
>>----- Original Message -----
>>From: <mailto:[log in to unmask]>Richard Veit
>>To: <mailto:[log in to unmask]>[log in to unmask]
>>Sent: Friday, June 29, 2001 12:32 AM
>>Subject: Re: A comma-splice?
>>
>>It doesn't matter what we have in common, we will always have something
>>to talk about.
>>I disagree with those who say this needs to be punctuated as two separate
>>sentences. A comma is standard practice (and can be found widely in
>>print) for sentences like this where two clauses--despite absence of
>>conjunction--are so obviously dependent on each other. You wouldn't find
>>a period in "No matter what you may have done, I still love you." The
>>clauses in the sentence in question have the same relationship. Anyone is
>>free to state that what they would like the standard practice to be in
>>the real world, but our job is to describe English as it is, not how we
>>might wish it to be. Most professional editors out there would have a
>>comma between the clauses.
>>
>>Dick Veit
>>University of North Carolina at Wilmington