should be a simple question

[rocky1]

I have a question to ask.I have always thought that a complete sentence had to be able to stand alone, and that if you could not grasp the complete thought the author was trying to get across it would not be a proper sentence.

So--- Is this a complete and properly punctuated sentence.


I,too,pay taxes.

I realize that too can be eliminated and the sentence will be valid. I am just wondering if surrounding too in commas is right, especially considering there is no reference to who else pays taxes.

I understant it has the components, but does it make sense if you do not know who they are referring to by using to word too, meaning also.

What do you get from the sentence other than that someone else? pays taxes.

Can it stand alone?does it have to?

Thanks for your time..

[rewboss]

A grammatically complete sentence should be able to stand alone without a feeling of incompleteness, but it doesn't necessarily mean that a sentence can be taken out of context and understood perfectly.

In the sentence "I, too, pay taxes," you have a subject ("I") and a verb (to be more prescise, a predicator, "pay"). In addition, the predicator also takes an object ("taxes").The sentence is grammatically correct, and makes semantic sense as well (you know what it means).

Here is an example of a sentence which is grammatically perfectly OK, but you have no hope of understanding it:

She does that every month.

Who is "she" and what does she do every month? You have no way of knowing: however, you know perfectly well that whatever it is this person, she does it every month -- and that is the thought that particular sentence was intended to convey. It is grammatically correct as well.

Here are two examples of utterances which are not complete sentences:

Pete told her a.
Tail its dog wagged the.

The first sentence either has a word missing or a word too many: it ends with an indefinite article, and in English the indefinite article cannot stand alone -- it needs at least a noun. It is not a grammatically correct sentence. "Pete told her" is a complete sentence (even though you have no idea what he told her); "Pete told her a lie" is also a complete sentence.

The second sentence has all the necessary words, but they are not assembled according to the rules of English grammar -- it is therefore not a sentence that makes any sense, just a list of disconnected words.

[rocky1]

Thank you for the reply. a few more things if you wll please reply.

Is it necessary or proper to use the commas

is there an antecedent in that sentence.

we are have in a discussion in another forum.

Thanks. Nice site. very helpful...