Re: Can "However" replace "But" at the beginning of a sentence?

J.W. Love writes:
> Rules, schmules! Deploy your words to set up whatever style meets your
> aim: if you want a breathless, jerky style, make every blurt of your
> mind a separate sentence; if you want a calm, equable style, unite your
> sentences in ways that show their interconnections. Both your posts
> focus on contrast, and your underlying question is how to mark it. Here
> are some possibilities
>
> (1) A. But B.
> (2) A. However, B.
> (3) A, but B.
> (4) A; but B.
> (5) A; however, B.
> (6) A: but B.
> (7) A---but B.
>
> Each of these patterns conveys its own competency or attitude...

Indeed. (Er, well, I'm not sure about that use of "competency".)
And there are also cases where you don't use any linking word, of
course, like these:

(8) A. B.
(9) A; B.

Note that in J.W.'s examples "but" is never followed by a comma,
but "however" is. This is because "however" is being used *as an
adverb*; it's part of the "B" clause or sentence. Examples 2 and 5
are like examples 8 and 9, with an adverb added.

"But", however, is a coordinate conjunction and relates to both
A and B at once. (This is why some people object to form 1, where
A appears in a separate sentence; they would probably also object
to 4 and 6, for similar reasons.) So it does not take a comma.

There are some people who use "however" as a coordinate conjunction,
and would be willing to substitute it into any of the "but" examples.
This may become widely accepted in the future, but I think most of
us who pay attention to grammar still consider it an error.

Confusing the issue is that "however" also has a use as a subordinate
conjunction, which nobody objects to, and in this use it does *not*
take a comma after it. I can't make a clear example using "A" to
stand for a whole clause, so let's say that "A" is "the sky is blue".
For example:

(2) The sky is blue. However, B.
(3) The sky is blue, but B.

Then you can also have:

(10) However blue the sky is, B.
(11) B, however blue the sky is.

That, no matter to what extent A is true, B is also true.

Still another point of confusion is that some people object to
sentence 2 on stylistic grounds -- including the noted style guide
"The Elements of Style" by Strunk and White. This book claims that
it gives a better rhythm if the adverbial "however" (which is part
of clause/sentence B, remember) is moved to a position later in the
sentence. Strunk and White got a lot of things right, for sure, but
on this particular point I say that they were just wrong -- the place
where a contrastive word normally belongs is between the two things
being contrasted. Not always, but normally.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto, msb@xxxxxxx
"Omit needless code! Omit needless code! Omit needless code!"
-- Chip Salzenberg (after Strunk & White)

My text in this article is in the public domain.
.