Re: And now for something completely different
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg120505] Re: And now for something completely different
- From: Richard Fateman <fateman at eecs.berkeley.edu>
- Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2011 07:08:08 -0400 (EDT)
- Delivered-to: l-mathgroup@mail-archive0.wolfram.com
- References: <201107251129.HAA25514@smc.vnet.net> <alpine.LRH.2.00.1107250900100.19262@pruffle.mit.edu>
On 7/25/2011 6:12 AM, ccarter at mit.edu wrote: > And, how is this relevant to the group topic? > > And, for what it is worth: > > HAMLET > ACT III > SCENE I A room in the castle. > [Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, POLONIUS, > OPHELIA, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN] > > KING CLAUDIUS And can you, by no drift of circumstance, > Get from him why he puts on this confusion, > Grating so harshly all his days of quiet > With turbulent and dangerous lunacy? One can find arguments on both sides, e.g. http://www.dailywritingtips.com/can-you-start-sentences-with-%E2%80%9Cand%E2%80%9D-and-%E2%80%9Cbut%E2%80%9D/ For example, I find the quote from Shakespeare to be non- annoying, perhaps because as "spoken" English it is informal, it is not repetitive, and in verse. Presumably Shakespeare had some motive based on cadence. On the other hand, your first sentence beginning with "And" is grating, though understandable as humor/snark.. The second one actually operates as a conjunction, sort of. Email probably falls into the category of "informal", so some syntax might be more relaxed. I have noticed many of my colleagues begin all their initial sentences with "So, .." perhaps as a way of clearing their throats and seeing if their voices still work. A reference claiming that this originated in Microsoft, is, in my opinion, bogus: http://boingboing.net/2010/06/17/origins-of-using-so.html As for why this is relevant: I was reading some documentation for Mathematica. And it had a link to Wolfram's A New Kind of Science. :) RJF > > > On Mon, 25 Jul 2011, Richard Fateman wrote: > >> Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2011 07:29:07 -0400 (EDT) >> From: Richard Fateman <fateman at cs.berkeley.edu> >> To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net >> Subject: And now for something completely different >> >> >> Can you start a paragraph with "And"? >> >> http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid090413160418AAyfRO2 >> >> says, 'No.' >> >> >> Stephen Wolfram often does so, and I find it annoying. >> example >> http://www.wolframscience.com/nksonline/page-42?firstview=1 >> >> This construction seems to have been removed from the online >> documentation. >> >> >> --RJF >> >>
- References:
- And now for something completely different
- From: Richard Fateman <fateman@cs.berkeley.edu>
- And now for something completely different