User talk:Flounderer

Hello again....

re: ta
You're right. Sometimes I become so focused on grammatical construction that I forget to look at the bigger picture&mdash;the flow and context of the sentence, the paragraph, and, ultimately, of the entire article. Thanks for reminding me of this. &mdash;Wayward 07:47, 14 October 2005 (UTC)

Athenian Democracy
Ahh, you're probably right about the other edits. I still don't think it's good style to start a sentence with Nor -- generally nor belongs to the start of a dependant clause in English, not a sentence, and so it sounds awkward. --Improv 14:56, 8 January 2006 (UTC)


 * Just to be fussy, the clause intoduced by 'nor' is not dependant or subordinated to the preceding clause, but they are both main clauses parallel to each other, just like sentences joined by "and" (co-ordinating conjunctions). I think you'll find that sentences opening with "Nor..." are common in academic writing (in the humanities anyway) where it works like a negative version of opening a sentence with "Further..." The difference between the nor preceded by a comma and the one you baulked at with the fullstop/period is really just one of pace. And there are often good reasons for not hurrying the reader. (I think it can be useful to think of punctuation as a set of tools for modulating pace and flow rather than as a body of rules to be automatically applied -- which is how people are thinking when they try to suggest a sentence should not open with "But...") Obviously "nor" cannot open some piece of discourse as it relates to something already said, but that something may just be a part of the ongoing meaning of the passage, even if that is on the far side of a fullstop/period. To my mind sentence-initial nor is not awkward but some people may find it a little pompous as it heads in the direction of sounding like a speech by Winston Churchill. (Similar openings are extremely common in Latin writing and I wouldn't be surprised if the pattern had been borrowed, or at least reinforced, from there.) Flounderer 00:09, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

Constitution of Athens
I noticed you appear to have been one of the main contributors to the article on Athenian democracy. In the talk page of the said article, I recently posted a diagram representing the Constitution of Athens based on the Athenaion Politeia attributed to Aristotle. I would like people to comment on it before I propose its inclusion in the article on Athenian democracy. You can take a look at the said diagram here:


 * [[Image:Constitution-of-the-Athenians-in-the-4th-century-BC.png]]

Thank you! -- Mathieugp 18:44, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

Yoga poll
Hi! There's some discussion on whether using "asana", "yogasana" or "yoga asana" as the article title. If you are acquainted with the subject, you are invited to drop your opinion at Talk:Yogasana. Davin7 10:49, 30 August 2007 (UTC)