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Post by Sabazius on Jun 18, 2011 4:04:54 GMT -5
I use them for clarity, but only when doing so is necessary. "At the store, I bought pears, shirts, pants and cereal" is fine in my opinion, but "At the store I bought two types of breakfast cereal, pears and shirts" reads as though 'pears' and 'shirts' are cereal brands! Of course there are ways of writing which remove the ambiguity and make the serial comma unnecessary, but given how natural the list is as a mannerism, it seems reasonable enough to use a grammatical flourish for clarity. That is, after all, why we have grammar in the first place. Ah, see, the really beautiful thing about arguments in favour of the Oxford comma is the fact that it's not considered necessary in any Romance languages (in fact, it's thought of as a punctuation mistake) so if you write: 'J'ai achete deux types des cereales de petit-déjeuner, poires et chemises.' everybody will be able to figure out that pears and shirts are not cereals without the aid of a comma, but if you're an American (the use of serial commas in Britain has very few supporters - and, by the way, University of Oxford is not among them) and write: 'I bought two types of breakfast cereal, pears and shirts.' people will go mad trying to understand what you mean, pour milk down their shirts and try to eat them with a spoon for breakfast. Obviously the example used is a little trite, and one would have to be pretty ill-informed to assume that pears and shirts are kinds of breakfast cereal. However, the example is not the argument. Surely you can see that there might be ambiguity in a case where the first noun describes a set of things and the following nouns might reasonably be considered elements of that set? English is not a Romance language. Trying to analogise the rules of grammar form one language to another leads to such ridiculous and baseless proclamations as 'one should never split an infinitive'. As it turns out, I am British, thank you very much, and your joke about American stupidity is something of a puzzle. Am I the target? Is this an attempt to deflect the attention of your fellow conversationalists away from your argument? Your appeal to the authority of Oxford and the general popularity of the serial comma in the United Kingdom have nothing to do with whether its usage is right. Indeed, there's no reason to say that we can be definitively correct on what is essentially a style issue. At most, I'm arguing that there are cases where the use of a serial comma is justified by the additional clarity that usage brings. |
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Zeffy
Young Armadillo
Posts: 59
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Post by Zeffy on Jun 18, 2011 12:22:10 GMT -5
I've always been taught to use them. I like using them, anyway. For me, it makes things more clear.
Just an extreme example:
"I have worked at Rose and Vicki's, B and E and Stop and Shop."
"I have worked at Rose and Vicki's, B and E, and Stop and Shop."
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Annie Ozone
Young Armadillo
Death of Cars, Reader of Books, Drinker of Booze, and Generally Accident-Prone Lady
Posts: 88
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Post by Annie Ozone on Jun 21, 2011 2:26:10 GMT -5
I love the Oxford comma! I feel like it improves clarity and rhythm. However, since I come from the journalistic school of writing (which is also where I got my penchant for dashes) I tend to sneak them. I'll put them in and wait for my prof to correct it; if they don't, I feel like I've gotten away with something.
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Post by Olive on Jun 21, 2011 7:44:33 GMT -5
Just the other day I was in the car with my housemates and one of them shouted "They forgot a comma!" and pointed to a billboard. It was lacking the oxford comma, and with my head hung I had to explain to him that technically it's optional.
He refused to believe me. It kind of made my day.
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Post by evenpottiesneedtoe on Jun 22, 2011 13:59:46 GMT -5
I love commas and punctuation in general, so I love Oxford Commas. I think that they help with clarity in defining where the list ends and help with infliction both when reading aloud and reading in your head.
Sometimes when I'm reading someone else's work and they don't include Oxford Commas, I genuinely get confused.
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WhatIf
Armadillo Pup
Posts: 40
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Post by WhatIf on Jun 24, 2011 13:40:35 GMT -5
I always learned that you had to use one, and when I heard otherwise I ignored it.
Now, I don't care much either way. Although I do love commas.
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Post by andreaisabbbw on Jun 29, 2011 19:13:21 GMT -5
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Post by onlyaworkingtitle on Jun 29, 2011 21:49:57 GMT -5
RRRRRGH. About how this is Not Okay. |
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rayyychul
Armadillo
On ne voit bien qu'avec le c?ur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.
Posts: 159
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Post by rayyychul on Jun 29, 2011 22:27:47 GMT -5
So basically, in any sentence ever? I thought the whole point of the Oxford comma was to avoid ambiguity in the first place.
"Pass me the red and green and yellow and orange marbles."
"Pass me the red and green, and yellow and orange marbles."
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Post by andreaisabbbw on Jun 29, 2011 23:29:21 GMT -5
RRRRRGH. About how this is Not Okay. Now all of our sentences are going to make no sense and be ambiguous as hell. |
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Post by Fuck Yeah Dion on Jul 3, 2011 21:32:31 GMT -5
I will take any excuse to use a comma.
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