Paul,
Good point. That is why KISS allows alternative explanations. If I
read you correctly, you agree that there was nothing "wrong" with the
student's sentence. I still would like to see the context.
Ed
>>> [log in to unmask] 06/16/04 07:08PM >>>
Ed,
I think the danger in this exercise is that out of context, Jane's
sentence does not seem to be a fragment at all. "He essentially becomes
God" APPEARS to be the main clause, in which case "A wholly hubristic
act" SEEMS adverbial (modifying the whole clause). How could one sense
that the clause is an appositive if there is so little context around
it?
Paul
Edward Vavra <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Jane,
Note that I said that the clause the whole clause ("he essentially
becomes God") functions as an appositive to "act." His wholly
hubristic act is that he essentially becomes God. That makes the
"sentence" a noun plus an appositive, which is why I referred to it as a
fragment. I doubt, by the way, that you will find that well explained in
most grammar textbooks.
As for the punctuation, I think the members of this list are too picky
because they study the "rules" rather than real texts. In analyzing
texts for the KISS site, I have found so many violations of the rules
that I have stopped commenting on them. Indeed, some of the KISS
exercises present students with the typical rules and then give them a
text in which the students are asked to explore the extent to which the
rules apply.
I did, by the way, run into a similar, but less complex case of a
verbless, appostive sentence in Kipling's Just So Stories:
There was nobody in the world so big as Pau Amma for he was the
King Crab of all Crabs. Not a common Crab, but a King Crab.
The second part of that second "sentence" is not a clause, but the
"sentence" consists of a noun phrase plus an appositive no verb. I
would, by the way, be interested in the context of the sentences from
the student's writing.
Ed
>>> [log in to unmask] 06/09/04 05:32PM >>>
The difference between my student's sentence and "A wonderful means of
transport, that new train" is that the two nouns are appositives. It's
a fragment that works. My sentence, "A wholly hubristic act, he
essentially becomes God" is not a fragment. But "act" is not an
appositive to "he" or to "God." I'll buy putting a colon, which seems
to
convert the main clause into a sort of noun, the whole of which
explains
the act...
Jane
[log in to unmask]
>>> [log in to unmask] 06/09/04 05:04PM >>>
Ed,
Isn't the better punctuation of your interpretation a colon rather
than
a
comma? And even better: has anything come of the "rule" I learned in
the
late
50's that appositives at the end of a sentence are set off with a
dash?
A wholly hubristic act: he essentially becomes God.
A wholly hubristic act -- he essentially becomes God.
I must admit that noun phrases are increasingly accepted as full
sentences.
Could this acceptance is connected to the use of a comma?
Perhaps we have here a verbless sentence similar to the one of some
British
popularity.
A wonderful means of transport, that new train.
But unlike the fragment in question the subject and predicate are
reversed.
Bruce
>>> [log in to unmask] 6/9/2004 2:23:05 PM >>>
Jane,
You seem to be implying that the sentence has an error in it that
needs to be corrected. I don't see that at all. True, it is a
fragment,
but lots of published writers use fragments. To me, that sentence is a
very mature expression, the "second" clause basically functioning as
an
appositive for "act."
Ed V.
>>> [log in to unmask] 06/07/04 11:56AM >>>
I am new to this group, so I hope this goes to everyone.
I got the following sentence on an exam (on Frankenstein):
A wholly hubristic act, he essentially becomes God.
I'm calling it a dangling appositive, but is there an official term?
Jane Saral
[log in to unmask]
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