okay, on my aim profile, i have a sentence on there that my friend says is grammatically incorrect. it says, ‘Snuggle is a slave to the corporations and is, ergo, not a pussy.’ i believe she may be right, but i want confirmation. she says the ‘is’ is unnecessary because the ergo covers it. is that true?
I’m not a grammarian, nor do I play one on TV.
That being said, I feel that the second “is” is important, not so much out of grammatical necessity, but for emphasis. It is the second clause of your sentence, “(Snuggle) is not a pussy”, that is the main point being emphasized. Dropping the second “is” just weakens the significance.
She’s not correct that ergo covers “is”. Ergo means “therefore”, so:
The second “is” is unnecessary but not incorrect.
The reason why ‘is’ is optional is due to how we create parallel construction with the use of conjunctions.
Consider this:
In the first case, the nominative (‘Snuggles’) and the predicate (‘is’) are stated once, and the two predicate nominatives (‘this,’ ‘that’) are joined by the conjuntion (‘and’).
In the second case, the nominative is stated once, but the predicate is repeated for each predicate nominative. This sets up what is known as a parallel construction.
In the third case, even the nominative is repeated for each predicate nominative.
You repeat elements of a sentence in parallel construction in more complicated sentences so that the reader/listener will not forget that part of the sentence. So, e.g., a sentence such as:
The second and concluding predicate nominative is so far from the predicate, that it bears (no pun intended) repeating the predicate for clarity – although, not absolutely necessary.
Peace.
Snuggles, teddy of Satan, must die.
Does it really matter if the sentence is grammatically correct? I mean, there are more important issues at hand, yes? Such issues as, oh I’ll just throw one out here, SNUGGLES BEING A COMPLETE PUNK ASSED PUSSY are by far more important than whether or not a setence touching upon the subject of Snuggles being a bitch is grammatically sound. We should all look at the relevant subject at hand and deal with it accordingly so that little shit (Snuggles) doesn’t get away scot free. Bash Snuggles to no end here, people. Take all that aggression that you’ve all been holding in, focus it on Snuggles and that cute fucking face of his, and let the name calling fly. Any and all grievances with “Big Pussy” Snuggles should be posted.
Grammar is important, herr reitz. Without it, we would all end up writing like you.