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GrammarTalk 24 - 23 May 2008 - Main.AndrewGradman
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Eben made many corrections on students' papers involving number-agreement. For example, "Why does everyone ignore their passions?," as opposed to, say, "Why does everyone ignore (his) / (her) / (his or her) passions?" | | | Before anyone boxes me in as an "anything goes" grammarian, I'm actually a staunch supporter of the comma. Also, I very much appreciate learning what it was called, through this thread. Thanks, Amanda and Thalia!
-- MichaelBerkovits - 23 May 2008 | |
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Michael, I don't understand why the Ayn Rand example that Amanda cites would "show that the cases where the comma is necessary for clarity are exceptional, not the norm."
Is it because we less frequently say "To my parents, Ayn Rand and God" than say "To my mother, Ayn Rand, and God"?
Given that most English-speakers practice religions that command them to honor both mother and father, I would think that the former example is heard MORE frequently than the latter.
-- AndrewGradman - 23 May 2008
And the takeaway is that, book dedications aside, the use versus the omission of the serial comma have an equal potential to confuse. And that, for the second time in this thread, an anecdote passing for insight has instead shown how little we think about the gimmicks that get forwarded to us in mass emails.
-- AndrewGradman - 23 May 2008 | | | |
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