Re: Back to the Future (was: I'm back, sort of)

>On Wednesday, September 24, 2003, at 02:31 , Isidora Zamora wrote:
>
>[snip]
>>My mother frequently skips her subject pronouns in written notes.  Always
>>has.  (See, I just dropped a subject pronoun.)  It drives my husband
>>slightly nuts, but I'm used to it.
>
>Good for your mother!  Often do it myself - and not just in notes  :)
>
>Ray
I realized shortly after I sent the message that I should also, for proper
effect, have left out the "It" and written, "Drives my husband slightly
nuts..."  I don't know that I would ever drop my pronouns in writing, as I
tend to be very prescriptivist when I write.  (The exception to this would
be if I were writing dialog, I would drop some of the pronouns for a
naturalistic effect.  The other reason I would do it would be if I am
intentionally trying to write e-mail in a more casual, conversational
style, again, for effect.)  However, I will drop pronouns left and right
when I speak.  (OTOH, I still use "whom" a lot in everyday speech when I
remember to notice that the relative is in the objective case, so I'm
prescriptivist even in speech, to a certain point.)  I still think of
writing of any form as more formal, and I also have more time to think and
properly compose my sentences when I write, as opposed to just having to be
content with what pops out of my mouth on short notice.

My husband is saying (right now he's in the room with me) that the problem
with my mother's letters is that it makes it extremely difficult to follow
any sort of narrative thread when she leaves out the pronominal subject of
nearly every sentence in the entire letter.  Basically, she doesn't use
pronominal subjects in her letters, only nominal ones.

Isidora