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Re: Part 2 of 2 -- Re: GDP: NR 1.1 Pitches 2008-01-26
From: |
Graham Percival |
Subject: |
Re: Part 2 of 2 -- Re: GDP: NR 1.1 Pitches 2008-01-26 |
Date: |
Mon, 4 Feb 2008 06:54:56 -0800 |
On Mon, 4 Feb 2008 09:23:08 -0500
"Palmer, Ralph" <address@hidden> wrote:
> ----------------------------------
>
> My copy of The Scott, Foresman Handbook for Writers, Fourth Edition,
> (1996), under "Problems with that, which, and who?" says,
> Understand that both essential (restrictive) and
> nonessential (nonrestrictive) clauses may begin with which. A clause
> introduced by that will almost always be essential. No commas are used
> around such clauses. . . . Context and punctuation, however, determine
> whether a which clause is essential or nonessential. If the clause is
> essential, no commas separate it from the rest of the sentence; if
> nonessential, commas enclose the clause. (Emphasis in the original.)
Interesting! I must admit that I found nothing objectionable with
the "which"es that Kurt suggested replacing with "that"...
actually, in a few cases, I thought that "which" sounded better.
But I've always avoided learning anything about grammar[1], so I
didn't mind replacing them.
[1] As a native English speaker, I don't see the point -- I can
speak and write perfectly well without knowing any formal rules of
grammar. Actually, when I started learning Japanese, I was
confused when the lesson was talking about "subject" and "object",
and had to look it up.
For anybody who thinks that knowledge of formal grammar is
necessary to be a good writer, I have a challenge: sit down and
write the complete rule for pluralization in English. At a
minimum, what is the general rule which tells you how to pluralize
"foot" and "boot"? I bet that there's less than a hundred people
on the planet who could formalize anything approaching a complete
rule for English pluralization... yet millions of people can do it
perfectly, recognize and correct mistakes, etc.
Cheers,
- Graham
- Re: Part 2 of 2 -- Re: GDP: NR 1.1 Pitches 2008-01-26, Palmer, Ralph, 2008/02/04
- Re: Part 2 of 2 -- Re: GDP: NR 1.1 Pitches 2008-01-26,
Graham Percival <=
- Re: Part 2 of 2 -- Re: GDP: NR 1.1 Pitches 2008-01-26 [OT], Kieren MacMillan, 2008/02/04
- Re: Part 2 of 2 -- Re: GDP: NR 1.1 Pitches 2008-01-26 [OT], Stan Sanderson, 2008/02/04
- Re: Part 2 of 2 -- Re: GDP: NR 1.1 Pitches 2008-01-26 [OT], Graham Percival, 2008/02/04
- RE: Part 2 of 2 -- Re: GDP: NR 1.1 Pitches 2008-01-26 [OT], Trevor Daniels, 2008/02/04
- Re: Part 2 of 2 -- Re: GDP: NR 1.1 Pitches 2008-01-26 [OT], Kieren MacMillan, 2008/02/04
- Re: Part 2 of 2 -- Re: GDP: NR 1.1 Pitches 2008-01-26 [OT], Graham Percival, 2008/02/04
- Re: Part 2 of 2 -- Re: GDP: NR 1.1 Pitches 2008-01-26 [OT], Kieren MacMillan, 2008/02/04
- Re: Part 2 of 2 -- Re: GDP: NR 1.1 Pitches 2008-01-26 [OT], Kieren MacMillan, 2008/02/04
Re: Part 2 of 2 -- Re: GDP: NR 1.1 Pitches 2008-01-26, Valentin Villenave, 2008/02/08