What a great response! ;-) Thanks everyone. >From: "Stahlke, Herbert F.W." <[log in to unmask]> >Reply-To: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar ><[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: Re: how to punctuate this >Date: Thu, 5 Aug 2004 22:43:55 -0500 > >Sorry about the misattribution. It was, of course, Bruce's analysis I was >agreeing with. > >Herb > > -----Original Message----- > From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar on behalf of Bruce >Despain > Sent: Thu 8/5/2004 9:37 AM > To: [log in to unmask] > Cc: > Subject: Re: how to punctuate this > > > Christine, > > It is hard to disagree with Herb. One little observation, however. I >think something needs to be said about the possibility that "what" in an >exclamative is a modifier of the article. I am more comfortable with the >exclamative being a full NP. This would make "what a paradox" parallel to >"many a paradox." The full form would be "What a paradox (it is)!" rather >than "What (is) a paradox" (! for ?) or "What a paradox (is is)," which >both seem vapid at best. (These last two involve the so-called headless >relative, which I prefer to call the indefinite noun clause.) > > Bruce > > >>> [log in to unmask] 8/5/2004 8:21:13 AM >>> > > Christine, > > I like your second version. The problem with the first is that it makes a >difference what the subject of "is" is, to paraphrase a well-known Rhodes >Scholar. Grammatically, the sujbect has to be "a paradox", and what's >within commas is an appositive. However, "a paradox" is also the >complement of "what" in an exclamatory sentence. Exclamations beginning >with wh-words typically lack verbs, just "what" + NP. So "a paradox" is >being asked to play to grammatical roles at once, something that doesn't >usually work well. The reader is tempted to make "the Internet" the >subject, but then the sentence becomes a comma splice. > > Herb > > > > Dear Group, > > How should this be punctuated? > > What a paradox, the Internet, the very cutting edge of communication > technology, is creating an anti-social society. > > What a paradox! The Internet, the very cutting edge of communication > technology, is creating an anti-social society. > > Christine Martin > > _________________________________________________________________ Don’t just search. Find. Check out the new MSN Search! http://search.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200636ave/direct/01/ To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/