Re: Would you mind telling me whether these sentences are correct?



Bob wrote:
>
> On Sun, 30 Oct 2005 10:16:14 -0800, Bill Bonde ('by a commodius vicus of
> recirculation') wrote:
>
> >
> >
> > Bob wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >> > 4. He who is always preoccupied with his own business can't be happy.
> >>
> >> (Looks OK to me.)
> >>
> > Wouldn't it be nice if you could show it as a restrictive or non
> > restrictive clause by putting a comma before the "who" but could always
> > include a comma before the main verb to help the reader figure out where
> > it bloody is? This unbalanced comma-ing to show pauses is how one actually
> > reads the text.
>
> Compare and contrast:
>
> "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."
>
> "Let he, who is without sin, cast the first stone."
>
> I read the original as being paralell in structure to the first of those
> quotes.
>
I agree that it is a restrictive clause, the non-restrictive clause
version having a meaning very different in this case. The restrictive
clause version should have, by rule, no commas. The problem is that
there is a slight pause before the verb when the material is read which
exists to hint that the clause is done and the main verb has arrived.
That is where I want to use the unbalanced comma if the restrictive
relative clause is so long that confusion might result. Of course even
contemplating this is all highly illegal.



--
Had Tolstoy confined himself to war or peace, he could have been
finished in seven hundred and fifty pages.
.

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