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Is the following statement grammatically correct?

"I'm loving isolation. A little too much."

I think the statement is grammatically incorrect, but someone, a professional writer/editor, made that comment on Facebook, and after I called them out on it, insists that it is correct.

I see that it is trying to replicate natural speech, but the way to introduce a pause would be with a dash or an ellipses, not a full stop.

So which one is right, a period or something else?

Mitch
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ToMakPo
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  • Yes, but there are not two full sentences. However, they reflect how we speak. You can put it into one sentence. – Lambie Jul 20 '20 at 20:25
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    There's nothing asyntactical about either sentence. The second sentence is, in its exact form, a sentence fragment. But that doesn't make it stylistically unacceptable or even ungrammatical (especially if omitted words are assumed). – Jason Bassford Jul 20 '20 at 20:25
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    This is an attempt to duplicate in writing what people do all the time in speech: to create a pause between two parts of what would normally be one sentence so that the last part may be called out for special emphasis. Other ways to do that are via ellipsis or em dash: "I'm loving isolation ... a little too much" or "I'm loving isolation—a little too much." – Robusto Jul 20 '20 at 20:46
  • You. Lose. Grace Goodhue Coolidge, recounted that a young woman sitting next to Coolidge at a dinner party confided to him she had bet she could get at least three words of conversation from him. Without looking at her he quietly retorted, “You lose.” Source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/calvin-coolidge/ – rajah9 Jul 20 '20 at 20:51
  • What exactly is the issue that you are wondering about? "I'm loving isolation" would be a no go 50 years ago, but using the progressive in this manner is more and more common. Eg the McDonald's ad campaign a few years ago: "I'm loving it" (which was noted at the time for being a little outré, but is currently totally unremarkable). Is that what you're asking about? – Mitch Jul 20 '20 at 21:26
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    In order to help settle an argument, we will need to know what the argument is. Past experience shows that if you just ask if there's any issue with the sentence "I have a dog", people will see that as a challenge. They will find a multitude of ways in which the sentence might be deemed inacceptable, only to immediately refute their own objection as invalid. You are already seeing some of that happening here, and there is no point in letting it go on. If you have a particular issue with the sentence, let us know what it is. If you can't identify any issue with it, well. There's your answer. – RegDwigнt Jul 20 '20 at 23:20
  • @Mitch - No. I'm asking about the fact that the second part of the statement is a continuation of the first sentence and not a full sentence on its own, but a full stop was used to break it up. – ToMakPo Jul 21 '20 at 02:24
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    Does this answer your question? Verbless sentence // The answer depends on how you define 'grammatically correct'. The old school of thought, regarding all sentence fragments, is precisely that. An old school of thought. Though over-use should be avoided, as should use in very formal contexts. – Edwin Ashworth Jul 21 '20 at 12:58

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"A little too much." is a sentence fragment. It is not a complete sentence because it does not contain a subject and verb.

However.

This is a stylistic choice. It's playing with punctuation. It may not be acceptable in formal grammar to use sentence fragments. However, writers are within their rights to use words in whatever way they desire to get their point across to readers. Novelists employ many techniques and structures that may not pass formal grammar rules -- but that does not make them wrong. I think this is effective, interesting writing. There are more important things to argue about.

user8356
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