Re: Flexibility of English

On Thu, 25 May 2006 19:44:33 +0000 (UTC), Mary K. Kuhner wrote:
/snip/

**
"And I decided I didn't care to throw any more lives away; especially
my own."

I like the sound of it, but I'm afraid the sight would boggle me; I'd think
it incorrect, a typo. I'd probably use a period.

/snip/


**
Shien wished for his mask; he felt naked without it, even though
when Dekrien had been his student he had not always observed the
proprietries.

Imo a semi-colon is perfect here.

/snip/

**
In half an hour he had a loose robe of black silk, long in
the sleeves but comfortable; a basin of herb-scented water and half
a dozen towels; ink, quill and parchment; and pale rosy wine and
a platter of bread and cheese, far more than he needed.

That's just plain fine. :-)


Those cannot be commas because of the internal commas in each
phrase, so they would have to be periods and fragments, or else
the whole thing would have to be recast somehow.

Punctuation is surprisingly powerful given how few signs are involved
and how fixed the meaning of most of them is!

Yes, beautiful stuff.


R.L.

.

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