Re: Circumfixes?

Christophe Grandsire wrote:
>
> 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 :) .
That was was more convoluted than what I normally write, but it does
seem comfortable to me. "The Wealth of Nations", by Adam Smith - the
sentances in that are *way* to long for me. They are paragraph-length
sentances, for the most part.

I tend not to use parentheses, but sometimes I do. I do use hyphens a
lot, where parentheses or commas would be expected - "So I was talking
to Fred the other day - you met him at that party a week ago - and he
said..." but more formal than that. I've never seen a style guide
address that use, even to warn against it, and I've never been told
using them was bad style. I could see how they could make reading
harder, though. I guess since I write sentances like that, I'm familiar
with them and can navigate through them alright.

> > 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 :) .
:-) It's very true.

This thread is awfully timely - tomorrow I have to give a presentation,
for no clear reason, on complex and compound sentances, for English
class. I think my teacher's just trying to fill the last class before
the exam. Ook.

--
Robert

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