Re: Who will stun the world as next Einstein?

From: Dirk Van de moortel (dirkvandemoortel_at_ThankS-NO-SperM.hotmail.com)
Date: 02/25/05 

Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2005 13:32:54 +0100

"Franz Heymann" <notfranz.heymann@btopenworld.com> wrote in message news:cvke3t$79l$1@titan.btinternet.com...

[snip]

> Donkeys' years ago, when I had to do a series of programmes for the
> BBC overseas servic, I was told by the producer that I was to avoid
> the use of commas entirely, and to place full-stops no further that 10
> words apart.

Franz, this is only slightly related to your remark...

I don't know about Afrikaans, but in Dutch we have some
kind of rule that tells us where in a sentence we are not
allowed to insert a comma. The rule is:
    "When you *can* replace the comma with a full-stop
     without making the sentence(s) grammatically incorrect,
     you *must* replace the comma with a full-stop in
     order to *make* the sentence(s) grammatically correct".
Note that the rule does not tell when commas *must* be
used.

Examples:

In this sentence, the commas are allowed, because
if you replace them with full-stops, you end up with
garbage like this:
    "In this sentence. The commas are allowed. Because
     if you replace them with full-stops. You end up with
     garbage like ..."
So the commas were allowed.

In this sentence, the second comma must be replaced
with a full-stop, the reason is that we *can* replace it,
and still have correct sentences like this:
    "In this sentence, the second comma must be replaced
    with a full-stop. The reason is that we *can* replace it,
    and still have correct sentences like..."
So the second comma had to be replaced.

It seems that the rule applies in English as well :-)

Dirk Vdm