[Grammar] Or starve.

[Sartre]

“I fear for my sanity,” he says. “I’m being instructed to mislead potential employers and spend 35 hours per week – compulsorily – applying for jobs I have no chance of obtaining. Or starve.”

In the above example "Or starve" stands on its own. Can it stand on its own?

 

[GoesStation]

It can't stand on its own as a sentence but it's fine as part of a quotation. Punctuating quotations from speech is never easy. It used to be conventional to rearrange quoted speech into coherent, proper sentences; nowadays it's more common to use punctuation to convey the rhythm of the original speech.

 

[Rover_KE]

You will even see emphatic sentences punctuated (informally) like this.

(Through gritted teeth): Read. My. Lips. You're grounded, young lady!

***

I have changed your thread title.


Extract from the Posting Guidelines:

'Thread titles should include all or part of the word/phrase being discussed.'

 

[Tdol]

Can it stand on its own?

It isn't a complete sentence in terms of traditional grammar, but this kind of sentence fragment is very common. It doesn't really stand on its own, but exists as a separate punch at the end, relating back to the previous content, but separated to give it extra emphasis. It wouldn't work in formal writing, but you'll see it in things like emails and chats often enough. If the context is informal, then it can stand on its own.