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--responding to @needs native check--
fine.
It's an order a drill sergeant might give. It might not match the Japanese, but I think the direction is implicit in the English. http://usmilitary.about.com/od/...laboutface.htm
What I was talking was supposed to be funny: talking about face. It was also supposed to show, by example, why the comma is wanted.
Without the comma, the phrase is adverbial; but it's supposed to function like a verb. As you said, it's a command--"Face about," meaning "Turn around"--not an answer to such questions as, "What are you thinking about?"
I don't understand what "It's a command, but not grammatically an 'imperative' sentence" means. Can you supply some examples of the class you mean.
Although I expect all of the branches of the American military produce publications that include commands at parade, I haven't seen any (in the last half-century). There is a Web site, however, that fairly reeks of American military style and culture: http://www.drillpad.net/DPindividual.htm. There you will find no hyphenated about-faces, but you will find the phrase, with and without commas. The pattern seems to be that the comma is omitted when referring to the commanded action or to the command in general, but included when the reference is to the command as spoken.
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fine.
It's an order a drill sergeant might give. It might not match the Japanese, but I think the direction is implicit in the English.
http://usmilitary.about.com/od/...laboutface.htm
"About face" is not what I was talking.
Without the comma, the phrase is adverbial; but it's supposed to function like a verb. As you said, it's a command--"Face about," meaning "Turn around"--not an answer to such questions as, "What are you thinking about?"
Two-word examples abound on the Web, with and without commas. It seems the comma is most often included when the 1-then-2 cadence is being emphasized.
Do you think, when a sentence wants a period at the end, that the longer version should be contributed as an alternate?
Although I expect all of the branches of the American military produce publications that include commands at parade, I haven't seen any (in the last half-century). There is a Web site, however, that fairly reeks of American military style and culture: http://www.drillpad.net/DPindividual.htm. There you will find no hyphenated about-faces, but you will find the phrase, with and without commas. The pattern seems to be that the comma is omitted when referring to the commanded action or to the command in general, but included when the reference is to the command as spoken.