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
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