Re: Circumfixes?

Robert Hailman wrote:
> > This unnaturalness starts somewhere around the point when there's more
> > single-clause sentenses than multi-clause sentences. But that's just me
>-
> > I'm sure there's plenty of folks who actually like lots of simple
>sentences.
>
>*Exactly!* Finally, someone who understands. I was working with a friend
>on some assignment, and my sentances were more complex than perhaps they
>would have liked, but I couldn't think of any way of breaking them up
>and maintaining the same clarity and ease of reading.
Nice to know one's not alone ...

>Generally, most of
>my sentances seem to hover just below the edge of what Microsoft Word
>considers a "long sentance."
I've got a nagging suspicion that the programmer in question simply thought
"How long can a reasonable sentence get? Well, about x words I'd think", and
then programmed the stupid thing to mark things longer than x as "Long
sentence". However, it's probably more probable that it was constructed by a
number of people unaccustomed to formal/technical writing, and thus imposed
a limit that's more adequate for informal chatter.
>
> > >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.
> >
> > Alsa, those ignorant teachers! Long sentences pretentious? Possibly if
> > they're burdened with unnaturally complex layering of phrases and
>clauses,
> > but length itself pretentious? No way!
>
>I don't have a copy of the essay handy, but the "worst" of the sentances
>was perhaps a little longer than the one I quoted above. That quote
>above wasn't for an English class, though, so the standards are
>different. Alas, I like the non-English-class standards better.
Well, in non-language classes, my teachers only object to outright errors,
if that, when it comes to language. They usually care very little about
style. Given most of my classmates, it's not like they need any more reasons
to lower grades.

                                                      Andreas
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