> John,

   Francis Christensen has an essay called "Sentence Openers" now
collected in Notes toward a New rhetoric: 9 essays for teachers", back
in print thanks to the extraordinary and loving efforts of ATEG member
Don Stewart.
   He divides the list into narrative and discursive and takes 200
sentence samples from each. (10 writers in each category.) Roughly 20 %
of fiction sentences and 25% of discursive sentences started with
non-subject openers, almost all of them adverbial. There's quite a bit
of variability. Eudora Welty peaks for fiction with 61/200. For Rachel
Carson's "The Sea Around Us", the figure is 79/200, roughly 40%.
    I don't know if those patterns hold up with a wider sample. I'm
curious also.

Craig

Does anyone out there know where I can find information on the number of
> sentences of professional authors that begin with something other than the
> subject noun phrase?  In other words, in a professionally written piece,
> how
> many sentences, on average, begin with an introductory element or some
> other
> non-subject constituent?
>
> Any leads would be deeply appreciated!
> John
>
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