Whatever the flexibility in contemporary English punctuation (and, of course, there is flexibility) it remains true that punctuation marks can occur only at the syntactic junctures of a sentence. On that perspective `punctuation' certainly is `grammar'. Bob's two sentences illustrate that a syntactic juncture between them can be marked either with a splicing comma of with a semi-colon. That is perfectly true of his particular sequential sentences. But it is not true of all sequential sentences. `Flexibility' in the choice of punctuation marks is delimited by semantic issues, here: Bob's simply happen to be two sentences in a semantic relationship that enables a splicing comma or the semi-colon. Neither marker would be enabled if the two sentences were not, syntactically, sentences. So grammar is still with us, even in the `flexibility' domain. Sophie ----- Original Message ----- From: Bob Yates <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Sunday, July 01, 2001 3:28 AM Subject: Re: comma splice and punctuation > I think we have to be very careful about claims like the following: > > > > If we accept that punctuation is a made-up thing, standardized by printers > > and varying somewhat from nation to nation, can't its conventions be both > > flexible and fallible? And, to get back to one of the original questions, is > > seventh grade really too early for writer's to understand that everything in > > writing is not always black and white, correct or incorrect? > > At some level of analysis this is right. There is an arbitrariness to using a . as > opposed to a ; or @ to indicate a "complete" sentence. On the other hand, there > are aspects of punctuation which are nearly impossible to duplicate in the spoken > language. Nunberg, in The Linguistics of Punctuation , notes that the following > two sentences have different meanings because of their punctuation. > > 1. Order your furniture on Monday, take it home on Tuesday. > 2. Order your furniture on Monday; take it home on Tuesday. > > (1) suggests ordering furniture is a condition for taking it home. (2) shows that > ordering and taking it home are two separate commands. > > Bob Yates, Central Missouri State University > > 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/