Re: What does the sentence mean?

John  Ings <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote on 15 Nov 2003:

> On 15 Nov 2003 06:26:28 -0800, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Liu Ju)
> wrote: 
> 
>>Yellow fever, the disease that killed 4,000 philadelphians in
>>1793, and so decimated Memphis, Tennessee, that the city lost its
>>charter, has reappeared after nearly two decades, in abeyance in
>>the Western Hemisphere. 
> 
> To start with, that sentence is very badly punctuated. I will
> defer to those more knowledgable than I who may comment, but I
> would write it this way:
> 
> "Yellow fever (the disease that killed 4,000 philadelphians in
> 1793, and so decimated Memphis Tennessee that the city lost its
> charter) has reappeared after nearly two decades  in abeyance in
> the Western Hemisphere.

"Yellow fever (the disease that killed 4,000 Philadelphians in
1793, and so decimated Memphis, Tennessee, that the city lost its
charter) has reappeared after nearly two decades in abeyance in
the western hemisphere" is required: capital "P", commas setting off 
"Tennessee", and no caps on "western hemisphere". Em-dashes could 
also be used instead of the parentheses, but I agree that commas make 
it too difficult to read.

Otherwise, thank you for making sense of that jumble, John. 
 
>>What does  "in abeyance" mean? 
> 
> It mans that no one in the Western Hemisphere has contracted
> Yellow Fever in the past 20 years.
> 
> 
>>I look it up in my dic and it means
>>"temporary inactivity" or "suspension". These meanings in the
>>context do not make sense to me.
> 
> The way that sentence was put together, it's not surprising.
> And I'm not quite sure whether you should write 
> "two decades  in abeyance" or just "two decades abeyance".

'Twould have to be "in abeyance" simply because that is the normal 
idiom, but it would probably be acceptable as "after an abeyance of 
two decades" or "after two decades of abeyance" or "after a two-
decade abeyance", or maybe even "after two decades' abeyance", all of 
which should be grammatical.
> 
> Doubtless more erudite denizens of the list will comment.