Well, the 15th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style is out. There's a nice article in the NY Times [free registration required] about it. But something caught my eye:
It also has the manual's first chapter on grammar and usage, written by Bryan A. Garner, with instructions on whether it is all right to use "and" and "but" at the beginning of a sentence. "And" has been O.K. since Chaucer's time, Mr. Garner said.
"The shibboleth persists that it isn't," he said. But the great grammarian H. W. Fowler, author of Modern English Usage, called it "a monstrous doctrine," he said. Mr. Garner, himself the author of A Dictionary of Modern American Usage, did a study on the issue. "Ten percent of sentences in first-rate writing begin with 'and' or 'but,' " he said.
Way to go, Henry. It's a pity that Ms Anita Samen's suggestion that en dashes be dropped was overruled.
[via Taccuino di Traduzione]
Posted by jim at August 7, 2003 10:10 AM | TrackBackDrop en dashes? Them's fightin' words...
Posted by: Dorothea Salo on August 7, 2003 02:13 PMI knew the minute I agreed with Ms Samen I'd regreat it. (Even though I go out of my way to use the XML entity for em dash on this blog's entries, rather than the twin hyphens of the days of typewriting.) I see the use of the en dash as somewhat analagous to the non-existence and non-usage of the ct ligature. I find it funny that Postscript fonts always seem to have fi, ffi, fl, and ffl ligatures but not the others. Oh, well.
Posted by: jim on August 7, 2003 02:23 PMAhem. Extirpate the en dash, you young whippersnapper? Bring me my horsewhip, Igor! Lessons must be learned!
Posted by: language hat on August 7, 2003 07:41 PM