Yay! Glad to have you, Itzel!

Gretchen

Meeting Nilandia: http://www.gsguide.net/index.php?title=Nilandia
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AIM: Lady Nilandia

>(In a comma-separated list, there should be a comma before the terminal "and"... kind of like in item 'inv'entory displays. <grin>)

She was obviously typing in British, duh!


~Izzea, trying to find more ways for people to confuse her with Itzel. ;)
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One, two and three works fine.

One, two, three, and more works fine.

Numbers are relevant. Chops are mutton. Nothing is crystal.

Doug, somewhere.

>Obviously not because the extra comma is called "the Oxford comma".

Would that it were so simple. The Oxford Comma, presumably so-called as its use is recommended by Oxford university's style guide while recommended against by Cambridge's (probably just to be difficult), is an extremely divisive subject amongst British writers, journalists, academics and other amateur grammarians. It is however commonly omitted throughout the Commonwealth in all but the most formal writing while (I believe) being commonly used by default in America.

Personally I'm of the opinion that punctuation is functional, not ritual or decorative. If there's no ambiguity as to meaning caused by its absence, it should be omitted. Less is more!

Dave, Brandain's Bard, crusader against unnecessary commas

>Yes the Oxford/serial comma is common in North America. It should always be included because often the ambiguity of the sentence is more obvious to the reader than the writer. Including it rarely causes ambiguity but not including it can lead to an ambiguous sentence. Always including it frees the writer from having to assess every list for ambiguity.

>For instance:

>For dinner I had bread, beer, ham and beans.

>For dinner I had bread, beer, ham, and beans.

>In the first one I do not know if they mean a bowl of ham and beans (midwestern staple food if you are wondering) or they had seperate servings ham and beans. The Oxford comma removes ambiguity.

Argh! Have at thee!

I'm not a fan of the precautionary principle when it comes to punctuation. While there may be a minute and very literal ambiguity in the first sentence, in actual practice if you meant the former (a bowl of ham and beans with bread and beer) you would never construct the first sentence in the first place as it is probably the most awkward way one could possibly assemble that culinary observation into a sentence.

Most examples of ambiguity that would be resolved by a serial comma are quite deliberately constructed, and could rarely appear in practice -- rather than introduce a redundant element of punctuation to resolve an imaginary problem people could just build their sentences properly, telling us for example that they had a bowl of ham and beans for dinner with bread and a beer.

Forcing additional punctuation on a poor bastard tongue like English just on the unlikely off-chance that a sensible thought might become functionally absurd is dictatorial. Down with excess commas!

Dave, Brandain's Grammatic Libertarian Bard

(Toldja it was divisive!) ;-)

Serial commas are serious business. Just sayin'.


____
~Wyrom
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>The hobgoblin suddenly wakes from his slumber and slams the club into his own skull, killing himself.
>Sjira exclaims, "Hobiside!"

"In fact, we're specifically taught not to in school!" -- Itzel

Hear that?!?! She's one of those Cambridge bas... yeah, I'll stop there. <nod>

.

Probably believes in the Baconian heresies, too!

>"In fact, we're specifically taught not to in school!" -- Itzel

Please tell me your Itzel/Izzea confusion was ironic! ;)


~Izzea
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Can the rest of us go with Senility as cause Robert?


SPLAT!! Khaladon careens off the far wall, slides down the smooth wood panelling and collapses into a quivering heap on the floor, with only his dignity bruised.