End of ADS-L Digest - 11 Jan 1998 to 12 Jan 1998
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Subject: ADS-L Digest - 12 Jan 1998 to 13 Jan 1998

There are 15 messages totalling 545 lines in this issue.

Topics of the day:

 1. A question of the use of "or". (2)
 2. outcasted (2)
 3. skell (5)
 4. Boustrophedon
 5. skell again
 6. "level the playing field" (3)
 7. unsubscribe

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Date:  Tue, 13 Jan 1998 17:09:44 +0900
From:  Hideho Ida <hida[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MAIL.DOSHISHA.AC.JP>
Subject: A question of the use of "or".

I have a question about the use of "or" in the following sentence.

I left the hotel; or I would have missed the train.

Of course, in this sentence "otherwise" is correct. But what do you
think of "or" in this sentence? Here "or" means "and if I had not". I
wonder if I should change the semi-colon before "or" into a comma in
this sentence.

In Quirk et al.'s _A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language_
(1985), I found the following example:

They (must have) liked this apartment, or they wouldn't have stayed so
long.

I would like to have your opinion about this matter. Thanks in
advance.

Hideho Ida hida[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]mail.doshisha.ac.jp