Comments on: Grammar Lesson of the Day: But

By: Paul Waters

Paul Waters — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 13:52:45 +0000

Note to Frank: Surely Dr. Esolen doesn’t “infer.” Doesn’t he “imply” and you “infer”?

By: thehermit

thehermit — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 05:43:26 +0000

Michael, you have a point. My first year Latin teacher never corrected anyone. He would say, ‘That’s correct, but I would make these changes,’ especially to anything public, on the blackboard, etc. He was an old man, a religious brother and a very gentle soul. It was humorous to us that he would never criticize any of us for a mistake. We may have made fun of that as 13 year olds. C’mon we were highly competitive overachievers, but we always respected him. We had better and worse teachers but I always liked him. The man knew Latin well enough to teach it.
The other commenters are correct In the ancient languages, they did not use punctuation. If later translators started a sentence with ‘but’ t was their choice, it was not part of the original manuscript.

By: Michael PS

Michael PS — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 08:56:16 +0000

Warshaw

Perhaps we should imitate the Classicists, who would describe a usage as rare, archaic, poetic, peculiar to, say, Plautus or even “peculiar to this place,” but never, ever, “wrong.”

At the same time, the would encourage their puples to imitate the best models and to avoid singularity.

By: Damaris

Damaris — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 19:11:06 +0000

My students claim that they can’t start a sentence with ‘Because.’ When I ask where they learned that rule, they suggest their high school &/or middle school teacher taught it. Until a few years ago, I believed they simply had misunderstood. THEN I was hired to teach grammar to some high school and middle school teachers. Before class started, a man came up to me and said, “I’m really glad to have this refresher. I’m very strict with my students, but how can I get them to stop using ‘because’ at the beginning of a sentence?”

I challenged him to show the the authority on which his rule rested. He couldn’t, and I had, inadvertently, made an enemy.

By: Warshaw

Warshaw — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 17:20:16 +0000

Good article. Grammar is a commentary on an existing linguistic phenomenon, not a rule book by which we must abide. As with music theory, in can help us gain an understanding of how to communicate with clarity. But the moment that grammar is used to critique successful communication, it has become a proverbial hammer for polishing the silver.

By: John Roberts

John Roberts — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 15:19:17 +0000

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ . . .” is a great sentence beginning with “but;” and it summarizes the gospel so delightfully!

By: Ben Thorp

Ben Thorp — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 14:51:48 +0000

Michael/pentamom – as someone who also lives in the West of Scotland, my impression is that the “but” is merely an ending word, similar to the (stereotypical) Canadian “eh”.

By: Frank

Frank — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 21:13:09 +0000

Good to hear this linguistic (and historical) commonsense! On the grammatical point, this Victorian nonsense about not starting a sentence with ‘and’ or ‘but’ was debunked as a ‘fetish’ back in 1926 by W.H Fowler in his”Modern English Usage”, and by Sir Earnest Gower, as a ‘faintly lingering superstition’ when he revised the same work in 1967. No reputable authority maintains this today; only poorly educated grammar-school pupils (who sometimes become teachers and perpetuate the misconception!)
Their faulty thinking runs like this: ‘A conjunction is a joining word; therefore it must join two parts of a sentence and cannot start a new sentence…’ Answer: a conjunction joins ideas, thoughts, a sequence of elements in an ordered argument; therefore it need not be limited to clauses within a sentence.
You can find examples throughout English literature – and as you infer, the Bible is full of them!
I heartily agree about the religious falsehoods too. Some prejudices take centuries to overcome!

By: Walt J.

Walt J. — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 16:59:00 +0000

My understanding is that in the first century when the New Testament was written, writings were done without spaces or punctuation in order to minimize the use of papyrus. If that is true, then the translators inserted the punctuations, perhaps not accurately. So who is to say if Jesus did indeed begin or end any sentence with the word “but?”

By: Michael PS

Michael PS — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 19:25:42 +0000

Pentamon

It can mean “though,” as I said, or it can mean “however.” It can have a vaguely intensive force, as in, “That’s a bonnie wean, but.” [That's a pretty child]

Much depends on both context and inflection.