A fellow syntax enthusiast enlightened me of this delightful punctuation debate. It is not directly linked to my experiences in Korea (though I admit not all my posts of late are either), though as an interesting[1] aside - and something that may influence my writing style in the future - I am feeling compelled to share it.
The Oxford comma, or serial comma, is the last comma in a list of items preceding a conjunction: usually 'and' or 'or'. The list "red, white, and blue," uses the Oxford comma yet, while being identical in meaning, the list "red, white and blue," excludes it.
Apparently it is more common practice in American English than British English, though, and I imagine hence the name, the Oxford University Press recommends its use. There are arguments both ways for its use regarding standard conventions, ambiguity and redundancy.
Personally I have found myself making a conscious decision whether or not to include this comma, but until now have been unaware of its propriety, or indeed the scale of its worldwide debate[2]. Intuitively as I write I have felt it has been incorrect to include this comma, however I have been guilty of using it in order to emulate speech in its intended manner, or indeed to use the comma instead where semi-colons might also have been appropriate.
Since language is so subjective, ever changing and open to debate, I suppose I will continue to sit on the fence on this issue, use it where I deem necessary, and continue to blog in my occasionally haphazard way.[3]
[1] another debate
[2] this is another literary device. It is not the Oxford comma itself that is doing the debating as is literally suggested, but about the Oxford comma that there is debate. I forget the name for this and on searching am still none the wiser. Help would be appreciated.
[3] I purposefully (perhaps ironically) both used and did not use the Oxford comma in this sentence. In the first instance I felt it unnecessary since the meaning would not change with its inclusion; in the second I was replacing commas where semi-colons could have been used, and in which case the final semi-colon would always be used to indicate the list items clearly.
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Saturday, June 21, 2008
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3 comments:
My view is that before the conjunction there is no need for a comma unless you are already using ‘and’ or ‘or’ in the list, for instance, "the indicator shows tare, gross, net, date and time, and ticket number" is a very fine example of when I would use the Oxford Comma.
In your last sentence my view is you rightly left out the comma after 'changing', incorrectly used it after 'issue', where a semicolon was called for and again used it after 'necessary' where there should have been no punctuation at all.
Oh, and by the way, semicolon is spelt without a hyphen.
Goodness gracious, all these people with nothing better to do on an idle Saturday afternoon. Has any of you (or, should I say, have any of you, à la langue familière) thought about spending your weekend engaging in some DIY or housework like normal folks? While we are being pedantic, should you capitalise your "C" in "the Oxford Comma"? Yes, and it is true that I have been accused, on more than one occasion, of overusing the use of commas. There we go, oops, I have also sinned against redundancy in my previous sentence; but then, go ahead and sue me, I'm foreign :)
Ouch ouch ouch! I totally agree that if there is another 'and' in the equation the Oxford comma could be adopted to save confusion.
I also agree that in my last list I could have used semicolons instead; (ha ha, much like that one) it would then have read: "I suppose I will continue to sit on the fence on this issue; use it where I deem necessary; and continue to blog in my occasionally haphazard way."
The last semicolon is ABSOLUTELY mandatory. It is separating the list items, and without it one assumes that the last two items are somehow linked. If you chose not to use any punctuation there a comma for the first one might suffice, and you could deem the second omission an Oxford comma.
Lastly, a capital C is not required, but since it was the title of the post I decided to capitalise the whole lot.
And, by the way, semi-colon is an accepted way of spelling semicolon.
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