atw: Re: AND, BUT, or OR as the first word of a sentence

  • From: "Brian Clarke" <brianclarke01@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2003 23:44:12 +1000

James,
Why are you quoting an extremely old American text at us? We may be 
the sherrif but we're not the total sycophant, yet.

Perhaps you can explain how a rule 'fails in application'. A rule can be 
obeyed or ignored - I cannot see how any rule itself can fail. Just 
because you drive through a red light, does this mean that the rule to 
obey traffic lights has failed? No, it means you have failed.

I'm not sure that the King James - or any version - of any text is a source 
of expertise for written English language as required nowadays. 
Notwithstanding your unsupported disbelief 'that the translators were not 
masters of the English language', it is also necessary to recall that the 
original Hebrew and Greek stories in that book were written in a story-
telling, often sing-song fashion for mostly illiterate folk. Even today, 
many storytellers do not conform to usual rules of written grammar. The 
need to have short sentences goes against the grain for most 
storytellers. Another James - Joyce - made a total mockery of rules of 
grammar with his storytelling style - many 'and's and few fullstops. 

Consequently, an 'And' may appear as the beginning of a sentence 
when it was probably a printer's attempt to impose some numbered 
order. Where one puts a fullstop when attempting to corral the many 
feats of bedroom athleticism begat in Ezekiel, Solomon and Kings is 
surely arbitrary. Perhaps your so-labelled pedants of yore were 
attempting to say "Hey, our audience is now quite a bit more literate - 
we've moved on from children's story time. Let's get a bit of quality in 
here."

And so should we.

Brian.
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