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Steven Xu
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2004 8:09 am
Post subject: ; however, | , however, |
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In elementary school, my masterful English teacher, for grade 6 and
grade 7, tought the class a cornucopia of grammatical and colloquial
techniques. Among which were the 'Nine Golden Rules.' I remember them
to this day. Excerpted:
- I D
- D, I
- I, cc I
- I; ca, I
- I; I
'I' stands for Independent Clause (I am sick)
'D' stands for Independent Clause (Because I ate too much last night)
'cc' stands for Coordinating Conjunction (and, yet, or...)
'ca' stands for something (If any of you can think of it, it would
appreciated), but it means subordinating conjuntion (however,
furthermore, therefore...)
Punctuation is self explainatory.
My question concerns the fourth rule in the series listed: I; ca, I.
Of late there has been a debate somewhere on the board about English
integrity vs. English teacher's grades. Personally, my English teacher
(>6 feet) would probably beat the living crap out of us if we did not
follow the rules.
Consider the clauses as follows:
Jimmy wants to go to the park
I want to stay at home
Now, to join them with a subordination conjuntion (however).
In many publish texts, it would write, "Jimmy wants to go to the park,
however, I want to stay at home." But my English teacher would write it
as, "Jimmy wants to go to the park; however, I want to stay at home."
Probably, both methods are perfectly acceptable, but my question is, is
one of them outright wrong, and why?
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Don Phillipson
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2004 8:11 am
Post subject: Re: ; however, | , however, |
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"Steven Xu" <cairo140@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1104199475.324162.210810@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
| Quote: | Consider the clauses as follows:
Jimmy wants to go to the park
I want to stay at home
Now, to join them with a subordination conjuntion (however).
In many publish texts, it would write, "Jimmy wants to go to the park,
however, I want to stay at home." But my English teacher would write it
as, "Jimmy wants to go to the park; however, I want to stay at home."
Probably, both methods are perfectly acceptable, but my question is, is
one of them outright wrong, and why?
|
1. However is not a subordinating conjunction.
2. These two sentences are most simply connected
by the conjunctions However, But or And. No commas
or other extra punctuation are needed. (Your first case
has 2 commas where only 1 is normal.)
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada) |
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Mary Ng
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2004 8:01 am
Post subject: Re: ; however, | , however, |
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Steven Xu wrote:
| Quote: | [snip]
Consider the clauses as follows:
Jimmy wants to go to the park
I want to stay at home
Now, to join them with a subordination conjuntion (however).
In many publish texts, it would write, "Jimmy wants to go to the
park, however, I want to stay at home." But my English teacher would
write it as, "Jimmy wants to go to the park; however, I want to stay
at home." Probably, both methods are perfectly acceptable, but my
question is, is one of them outright wrong, and why?
|
We use a comma before a coordinating conjunction like "and", "or",
"but" that joins two independent clauses. We use a semicolon to
separate two independent clauses that are not joined by a
coordinating conjunction.
Your English teacher is correct. A semicolon should be used before
the conjunctive adverb "however" when it joins two independent
clauses; here "however" acts as a sentence connector.
--
Mary Ng
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