Re: Circumfixes?

En réponse à Robert Hailman <robert@...>:

>
> Long sentances are a problem I have too, I can't help but write essays
> and the like using long sentances. I'm digging for an example, but I
> can't find one...
>
> Ah... here's one. It's from an outline of the Soyuz program: "The
> Russian government has said that it will no longer be able to send
> more
> than one mission into space each year, and certain systems that were
> originally considered essential by the designers to the Soyuz craft,
> such as the automatic docking systems, can no longer be used, because
> they are made in former Soviet Republics other than Russia, and
> therefore are not free to the Russian government."  That's 68 words,
> and
> feels entirely comfortable to me. Actually, I'm more comfortable with
> long sentances rather than short ones, both when reading and writing.
> Short sentances seem very jarring, and often make it difficult to
> convey
> meaning as quickly as one "big-ass" sentance. Generally, anything
> shorter than a paragraph-length sentance is OK by me.
>
This sentence was quite difficult for me I must say. I had to read it twice
before I understood it fully. I know my sentences tend to be long too, but they
are usually not that convoluted, and thus appear shorter than they really are :)
. I usually don't go further than 4 clauses (main and subclauses included) per
sentence, unless I use parentheses (that's my big problem, I use them too much,
and it's considered poor style :) ). But apart from that, I try to keep my style
as concise as possible, probably because my hand gets tired of writing quite
fast too :) .

> I generally haven't had any trouble with it, although recently my
> English teacher marked an essay poorly for style, because she
> interpreted the long sentances as being far too pretentious. *I*
> didn't
> see it like that, at least.
>
All my teachers always said that. Still, they were the first ones to dictate us
paragraph-long sentences :) .

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

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