Crankypants

[cjsmith]

I have my crankypants on today.

Crankypants item number one: One of the kitties threw up on the living room carpet during the night. AGAIN.

Crankypants item number two: I read else-LJ about a person who, when out having a good time with friends and heading toward a party, saw a nasty sign in the window of the party's house. The whole group knew instantly that this person would not be welcome. What happened next? The person's friends didn't go in either.

Have I ever had friends who would do such a thing for me? I know I've had lovers who wouldn't.

Crankypants three: I am sick of comma splices. Comma splices are to me like fingernails on a blackboard are to the simpering fragile contingent in high school. They are awful! I really would prefer never to see one again. But if I pulled journals off my default read list for comma splices, I'd have to get rid of several I would otherwise like to read. Make, for example, is infested, yet it also has interesting content from time to time. How dare they?

Honestly, I know these are all minor. I have a living room, complete with carpet, and I have three cats who purr when I scritch them. I chose to have cats. Similarly, it's up to me to choose my friends and build good friendships, and nobody is forcing me to read posts that weren't worth editing.

I still have a bit of crankypants though. Cranky shorts? :-) Okay, not even those. I'm feeling better already. Sometimes venting DOES help, and remarkably quickly too.

Time to go clean that carpet.

Comments

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I probably have as well. I'm conversational in my journal too. (My biggest "casual conversation" grammar fault in my journal is probably sentence fragments.) I guess it's the frequency that really gets me. Some writers apparently can't put together a paragraph without a comma splice in it. Some can't make a SENTENCE without a comma splice in it.

Here's a question. Is the following sentence technically an example of a comma splice? (NB: even if it is, it doesn't bother me a bit.)

"Yes, I agree."

I don't know how the initial "Yes" is classified.

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

I don't think that's a comma splice. I think that's an appropriate (but perhaps archaic) usage of a comma. It is the format that I would use for that sentence.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

It is the format I would use, too.

1. "Yes, I agree."

2. "He's a twit, I hate him."

My gut says 1 is correct and 2 is not, and I can't name a rule saying WHY. Some anal-retentive grammar fiend I am!

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

I think it's because the latter would stand alone as two sentences. The first does not.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Is "Yes." not a complete sentence? That sure would be convenient, because that falls right back under what a comma splice is. Then one simple rule covers it all.

*slaps forehead at own stupidity*

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

Of course it is. I guess it's because the 'I agree' feels like a modifier of the 'yes', and the 'He's a twit, I hate him' are two separate things.
Can you tell I never did learn how to diagram a sentence????

Re: *slaps forehead at own stupidity*

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Neither did I! (sheepish look)

[sharya.livejournal.com]

I think the second one would be more appropriate as:

"He's a twit; I hate him."

But I could be wrong. What is the actual definition of a comma splice? I could be a huge offender of this :X

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I agree. A comma splice is the use of a comma without a conjunction or other joining word to stick two complete sentences together. Changing the comma to a semicolon fixes it, as does adding a word such as "and" or simply making the whole mess two separate sentences.

[eichin.livejournal.com]

Interjection, perhaps?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Could be. I'm fuzzy on terminology. I know "Hey!" is an interjection but I simply don't know whether "Yes" would be called one too.

Some grammar fiend I am!

[eeyore-grrl.livejournal.com]

that is not a comma splice; due to the usage of the word "yes."

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

That's what I thought, but I can't cite a rule to tell me why. Some grammar fiend I am!