However. . . LONG! was RE: because/since

["Race, Paul D" <racepa -at- WHQPOS4B -dot- DAYTONOH -dot- ATTGIS -dot- COM>]

>From: sue.luke

>There's nothing "wrong" with starting a sentence with because! Or and! Or
>or! Or also! Or but! But how about however? That one I draw the line at.

paul.d.race in a knee-jerk response to one more anal attempt to impose
non-existent rules on the English language says:

Why "however"?  I recently encountered a manager who said he had been taught
that however is a conjunction and should be used basically the same way you
use "but."

He has a cold, but he's getting better.
He has a cold, however he's getting better.  (I would consider this a comma
splice, BTW)

I'm afraid that most of my 42 years of living and 20 years of writing I've
seen "however" used and used it myself almost exclusively as a transition
adverb, similarly to the way you might use "on the other hand."

He has a cold.  On the other hand, he's getting better.
He has a cold.  However, he's getting better.

Mirriam Webster's Collegiate lists "however" as an adverb, which is nice for
me because it supports my opinion. (Not that I would have valued MW's
opinion had they DISAGREED. :-)   )

My guess is that someone thought "however" sounds better if it doesn't begin
a sentence.

He has a cold.  He's getting better, however.

Given, that might be better phrasing than "However, he's getting better."

But some petty would-be high-school grammarian seems to have confused the
"not starting a sentence with 'however'" "recommendation" with the "not
starting a sentence with 'but' or 'and' rule."

So if this construction is wrong (by the "but" and "and" rule):

He has a cold.  But he's getting better

Then this construction must be wrong as well:

He has a cold.  However he's getting better.

BUT!!!  Even if you believe in the the And/But rule (I don't - there is no
such rule in English usage) and even if you believe in the "not starting a
sentence with 'however' rule (which is similarly non-existant) you have to
keep in mind that they ARE NOT related!

So, while an anal and/but ruler might think you need to fix:

He has a cold.  But he's getting better.

by changing it to: "He has a cold, but he's getting better."

Only somebody completely out of touch with the last half-millenium of
English usage could possibly attempt to fix:

He has a cold.  However he's getting better.

by changing it to: "He has a cold, however he's getting better."

But a month ago, my manager criticized MY bad grammer because I wasn't using
"however" as a conjunction.

Sorry for the tirade.  But you have to remember that many of the "rules"
people have trouble remembering in English are difficult to remember because
they aren't rules of usage at all, even in great literature or nonfiction
writing.

Subject-verb agreement - that's a rule.

Not ending a sentence with a preposition or splitting infinitives - those
aren't rules of English grammar, they were recommended by LATIN grammarians
of Elizabeth I's day, because writing English this way would make it easier
to do word-for-word translations into LATIN.  Repeat after me: "Latin is not
English.  English is not Latin."

The "rule" about not beginning a sentence with "And" or "But" flies in the
face of 5 centuries of English usages.  And that doesn't even have the
justification of bringing English closer into sync with Latin, since Latin
and Greek and most other western languages do it all the time.

Not beginning a sentence with "however" was never even a rule of "grammar,"
it was a hint for phrasing sentences more gracefully.

Now we have people misusing "however" BADLY as a conjunction because we've
gotten anal over where this adverb belongs in a sentence.

Unfortunately for "however"-misusers, you can, unfortunately, put an adverb
almost ANYWHERE in a sentence, unfortunately,

Have a nice day, however.