Ed,
     Nicely said. When adverbials move to the front of a clause, they 
very often establish a thematic connection to the sentences before (or 
even anticipate sentences to follow.) They have a strong role in 
establishing the flow of discourse. It seems to me problematic to single 
out a few of those for a special status and then generate a punctuation 
rule to apply only to them. It seems that good writers happily ignore 
the advice.
    These "conjunctive adverbs" are easy to paraphrase. "Therefore" and 
"consequently" can be replaced by "as a result." "Nevertheless" can mean 
something close to "despite that." "On the other hand," in addition," 
additionally," "as a matter of fact," and "for example" often float into 
that opening slot, doing much the same work.
    "Then" is parallel to "first," "next," "last" or "finally." They 
open sentences up quite often because of their thematic role. "First, 
we... Next, we.... Then, we.... Finally, we....." They are not locked 
into opening position (nor are the so-called "conjunctive adverbs"), but 
it is a natural place for them given their role in the discourse.

Craig


On 2/13/2011 1:40 PM, Edgar Schuster wrote:
> John,
> Although it is not your main concern, I would like to note that 
> a conjunctive adverbs MAY be preceded by a semicolon, but in fact 
> these words are far more often preceded by a period.  This is true 
> even in handbooks that continue to tell students to use semicolons in 
> that position, and it is definitely true in professional writing of 
> every kind I have ever examined.  My best guess is that the ratio of 
> period to semicolon in contemporary writing is close to 10 to 1.
>
> Ed S
>
> On Feb 11, 2011, at 3:57 PM, John Dews-Alexander wrote:
>
>> I want to check my own understanding of a few things. This message 
>> might meander, but it goes somewhere, promise!
>>
>> First, is this a very common punctuation standard? *
>>
>> A conjunctive adverb, when used to join two independent clauses, is 
>> preceded by a semicolon and followed by a comma unless the 
>> conjunctive adverb is one syllable, in which case the comma is not 
>> necessary.
>>
>> *Following this rule, we would write:
>>
>> "The first freeze of winter arrived; however, the plants were saved 
>> due to the gardener's efforts."
>>
>> "The first freeze of winter arrived; then the gardener wept over his 
>> dead plants."
>>
>> Is this a punctuation convention that list members use?
>>
>> Second, I'd like to ask about the word "then". It seems like a 
>> prototypical conjunction, functioning to join a concept with a 
>> temporal modifier. The example above would qualify as would this one, 
>> which uses the conjunction as an adverbial NOT between two 
>> independent clauses:
>>
>> "You are late. You go, then, to the back of the line.
>>
>> But what about this:
>>
>> "He turned the ignition then slammed his foot on the gas pedal."
>>
>> "Then" is not functioning as a conjunctive adverb. It's neither 
>> adverbial nor conjunctival (conjunction-like?). In this case is it 
>> functioning as a preposition? If so, is the verb phrase "slammed his 
>> foot on the gas pedal" serving as object of that preposition?
>>
>> Am I on the right track here? I'm trying to answer a student question 
>> about why our native instinct is to say:
>>
>> Speaker A: "Who should go first?"
>> Speaker B: "You then me." (Instead of "You [go] then I [go].)
>>
>> Is it "me" because it is serving as object of a preposition ("then")?
>>
>> Thanks for weighing in on this!
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>>
>
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