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April 2004

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Subject:
From:
"Stahlke, Herbert F.W." <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 26 Apr 2004 13:00:43 -0500
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Just like split infinitives, final prepositions, and initial "and" and
"but", the rule prohibiting clause internal colon before a list is
widely and properly ignored.  I still don't like them and I tend to
avoid them, but that's personal taste.  However, your examples of
fragments followed by colon don't strike me as the same thing.  These
fragments function as full clauses, so the question still remains as to
when the colon should be used in cases like the Reynolds Price and the
Education Week (not one of my personal models of style).  

Has any publication sanctioned clause internal colon, and, if so, under
what conditions?  If this hasn't happened yet, maybe we ought to work on
it.

Herb


Here are a few other contemporary examples:

The OED says that religion is: Belief in, reverence for, and desire to
please, a divine ruling power.  (Reynolds Price)

For example, if the numbers read aloud were: 1. 2. 3. and 4, the answers
would be 3, 5, and 7.  (Education Week)

Fragments followed by colons are also not uncommon:

To sum up: the classical words adopted sine the Renaissance have
enriched the
English language very greatly . . . .   (Otto Jespersen)

Well-known fact: In neither K-12 nor college English are systematic SWE
grammar and usage much taught anymore.  (David Foster Wallace)

I do wonder for how long the rule has been dying.  The following is from
Strunk and White's Elements of Style:

". . . it is exciting to reread . . . of this noble theme.  It goes:
"Vigorous writing is concise . . . ."

Ed Schuster

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