The
Well Bred Sentence
(Table
of Contents)
The Well Bred
Sentence
An
Intensive Study of Sentence Construction and Punctuation
©
Sophie Johnson
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The basic fact about the contemporary English comma is that it does not have to mark all the otherwise unmarked junctures of a sentence. There are some that must be marked and some that can but need not be marked. This Chapter will discuss the necessary, unnecessary and the wrong uses of the comma. The comma has to mark only five syntactic junctures:
The points between the items of a list must be marked by commas. A list consists of:
The conjunctive `and' takes the place of the comma between the last two items of a list. Nouns as a list Nouns name single items in these sentences. Commas demarcate them:
Alternate nouns as a list The subject raised by the basic sentence of the next sentence is named by the proper noun `Dr Allen Aitken' and by the noun phrase `the director of the local branch of the International Society of Hypnosis'. Two nounal elements that name the same subject constitute a list. Like any items of a list, alternate names must be separated by a comma. A second comma marks the end of the sequence that is the alternate name.
When there are several sets of alternately naming sequences, the `listing' practice of demarcating them with commas is again operative. In the next sentence, `an association of doctors using hypnotherapy' is an alternate name for the `International Society of Hypnosis', just as `the director of the local branch of the International Society of Hypnosis' is an alternate name for `Dr Allen Aitken:'
Noun phrases as a list When objects or abstractions are named by noun phrases each phrase is one item of a list. Each must be demarcated by a comma:
In the following sentence the content of the copular verb `have long heard' is named by the noun phrases `about World War Two'. This noun-phrase is followed by three adverb-led noun phrases – `from the point of view of veterans', `in books by contemporary historians', `in the writings of journalists' – that locate the context of the activity `have long heard' occurred. These locative noun phrases, being items of a list, must be demarcated. The first and the second are demarcated with a commas, the second and third with `and':
Adjective phrases as a list The two phrases: `topped by a little ornamental balustrade' and `its varnish chipped and soiled' describe the noun `writing desk'. They constitute a list of two independent descriptions (though the former is an adjective phrase and the latter a foreshortened sentence acting as an adjective phrase) and must be demarcated from each other.
The next sentence lists adjective phrases to describe the noun `tendency': `towards big government' and `[towards] big taxing' and `[towards] centralisation of decision-making about our daily lives by faceless boardroom bosses'. Each adjective phrase is an item of a list and must be demarcated:
Single-word adjectives and relative-phrases Some single-word adjectives and relative phrases must be demarcated by commas. They are discussed later, under the heading `Meaning, the comma and the relative phrase'. Adverb phrases as a list The next sentence has a `verb + subject' basic sentence. In it the adverb phrases `when we called him', `no matter the day' and `no matter the hour' all describe the time of the subject's act came. As items of a list of descriptions, they must be demarcated by commas:
The necessary comma and the present-participle phrase The present-participle phrase must be demarcated with a comma from the basic sentence when it attaches to its verb by describing it. (In this sentence the present participle `giving' leads the noun phrase `a taste of the verbal skills' to describes the manner of subject's activity `enable', of which the content has already been named by the noun phrase `to listen to a Coleridge conversation'):
Necessary comma and the composite sentence In a composite sentence (see the Chapter `The Composite Sentence') commas demarcate: (i) the listed sentences and the `result' sentence:
(ii) the foreshortened sentence:
(iii) The attributing sentence:
(iv) The direct address (vocative) noun or noun phrase:
EXERCISE 13 is appropriate here. Meanings that make the comma either obligatory or wrong The comma can make meaning for reason alone of its presence or absence in a sentence. Its use in specific circumstances is therefore either obligatory or wrong, depending on the meaning the writer wants to make. The comma, meaning and the relative phrases It is the comma that determines the meaning that relative phrases make. In this sentence the meaning is: All things that are `electricity-distributing companies' are `things that lost money':
Meaning changes when the comma is removed from this sentence. It becomes: `Some things that are "electricity-distributing companies" are "some things that lost money" ':
Comma-determined meanings of this kind occur in the next sentences:
EXERCISE 16 is appropriate here The comma, meaning and -ly words Words such as `hopefully', `obviously', `clearly' can be used either as adverbs or as the foreshortened sentence that splices to make a composite sentence. The comma determines that they are foreshortened sentences and distinguishes their meaning from that of the adverbs:
Composite-sentence wordings are sometimes identical with compound-sentence wordings. In the next sentences commas determine that they are composite sentences and distinguishes their meanings from those of the compound sentences:
The comma, like any other internal sentence marker, can be used only at a syntactic juncture in the sentence. There is no syntactic juncture in any sequence that is one syntactic unit. So there is no syntactic juncture in:
If a comma is placed at any point in the sentence that is not a syntactic juncture, then that comma is wrongly used. The following wrong uses of the comma are common. Common to all of them is the failure to realise that they mark a point that is not a syntactic juncture. The comma that disrupts a basic sentence There is no juncture between a subject and its object or complement. There cannot be. `Subject and object/complement' is the syntactic unit `basic sentence'. Failure to recognise the subject can lead writers into the mistake of disrupting a basic sentence:
The noun phrase `That he knows it to be completely illegal in this country' names the subject every bit as much as if it were the one-word name `John'. Nobody would write `John, is not going to stop him', because everybody knows that there is no syntactic juncture in the text of a basic sentence. This holds true also when the subject is named by a noun phrase. The sentence should have been written thus:
The same mistake occurs in the following sentence. The subject is named by the noun phrase This travelling circus of amateur athletes.
It should have been written without a comma:
Long sentences often prompt people to drop in a comma for `appearance' sake. This writer's comma was probably one of those jobs. It did only harm, as such `drops' are wont to do. It disrupted his basic sentence:
The sentence should be without that comma:
Just as the comma must not disrupt the basic sentence at its subject stage, so it must not disrupt it at its object/complement stage. The comma in this sentence disrupted it by demarcating its adverb complement:
There should be no comma in the basic sentence:
Nobody would even contemplate a comma after `came' in the foregoing sentence if `later' were the only word of its adverb complement. That the complement is the adverb phrase `later than expected' is no reason for thinking the comma admissible. The comma that disrupts a noun phrase This writer demarcated the adjectival element of his noun phrase and thereby disrupted it:
The phrase `over the nurses' pay award' should not have been demarcated. It is part of the noun phrase that names the subject:
In the next sentence the disrupted noun phrase is the very one that specifies the content of the subject's act `said'. That disruption hampers the specification:
The sentence should have been written without this comma:
The comma that disrupts a foreshortened sentence Some writers become nervous when their descriptive sequences get to be longish, and they scratch in a comma with a view to tethering it. The comma, however, does not tether. It disrupts, making the reader lose track of what is being described. This writer's sentence is an example of a disrupting comma in an adjective phrase-cum- foreshortened sentence
The foreshortened sentence `Well located in an elevated position on a wide block by the river' is the adjective that describes the subject `the house' of the independent sentence with which it splices. There is no role for commas in it:
EXERCISE 17 is appropriate here. Writers sometimes place commas at syntactic junctures where they are not necessary. They do this because they like to, or in order to achieve certain stylistic effects. So long as they are at syntactic junctures, these placements are not wrong uses of the comma. But it is just as well to remember that contemporary publication favours a lightly punctuated text. In the light of this it is best to avoid using all but the necessary commas. The commas with a compounding operator A celebrated stylist had this to say about commas used with compounding operators:
There certainly is a good case against using commas in a compound sentence. In them the compounding operators mark the syntactic junctures of a sentence. They makes the comma superfluous:
A comma with the compounding operator in the spliced `result' sentence of a composite sentence is another matter. It has its list to plead: If the comma does not mark the final item of that list, then the reader, expecting another item, trips on the unexpected structure of the `result' sentence:
The longish compounding-operator regulated sentence has its length to plead a need for the comma. Such a sentence might even have a coincidence of the same or similar words that make a comma essential:
Commas when an adverb phrase embeds the basic sentence Adverb-led phrases can but need not be demarcated from the basic sentence of which they are not an integral part. Adverb phrases in these sentences are not parts of the basic sentences:
Rights and the expendable comma The writer who likes to use commas at all available syntactic junctures will argue that they help the reader through a sentence. That writer has to be allowed to exercise his taste in the matter. But the one who inclines to using his commas sparingly must also be allowed his preference. Should anyone on his behalf insert commas he chose to do without, he is fully entitled to object. The striking-out of an `unnecessary' comma can earn the incautious editor some well-deserved castigation. The one who denuded this sentence of its commas, on the ground that they are separating a predicate-adjective phrase from the subject it describes, had it pointed out, to her embarrassment, that the commas are properly demarcating a foreshortened sentence:
Writers often demarcate a sequence that is both an adjective and a foreshortened sentence. They do this in order to emphasise it. In this sentence the writer wanted the sequence `known both as Alan Ward and Thomas Jeffreys' to do more than just describe the subject `This elusive man': He wanted it to make the point that a man is known both as `Alan Ward' and as `Thomas Jeffreys'. That point is an `aside', or a parenthetical departure, from the point his sentence is making. No editor is licensed to meddle with his intention by deleting the parenthetical commas:
On the other hand, some writers are such zealous employers of the comma that they become irritating:
There must be sympathy for the editor who disallows this accumulation of gratuitous commas:
The comma does not rescue bad construction There is no point in trying to `doctor' a badly constructed sentence with a comma. The comma simply is not up to the job. The writer of this sentence inserted a comma in the hope of healing its ambiguity:
There are two statement here:
This writer probably misunderstood the sequence `In the light of the fact that he is very well qualified' to mean `because'. Apparently uncomfortable with his composition, he hoped to improve it by scratching in a comma. However, a comma will not improve bad construction, nor correct the misuse of an expressions. The comma and single-word adjectives When adjectives describe as sequential single words (not as phrases) they perform as sets of independent descriptions or as sets of interdependent descriptions. Adjective as independent descriptions Independent adjectives display the discrete facets of the noun they are describing. They list descriptions. As items of a list these descriptions are necessarily separated by commas. That smelly, dirty, ragged coat is still his favourite one. Adjective as interdependent descriptions Interdependent adjectives describe a noun by defining it. They are part of the naming sequence `noun phrase'. They must not be demarcated by commas precisely because they are parts of a noun phrase. In the following sentence interdependent adjectives (`little' and `old)' are part of a noun phrase that includes the noun itself (`the lady') and a relative-adjective phrase (`who lives next door'). This noun phrase, `the little old lady who lives next door', is also an alternate name for `Kate': Kate, the little old lady who lives next door, gave us a cake. The different `doings' of independent and interdependent adjectives That independent and interdependent adjectives `do' different things becomes evident in their distinctive ways of having either:
The independent-adjective sequence of each of the following sentences has the meaning-template form of the copula sentence in which the subject is described by predicate adjectives. Several predicate adjectives constitute a list of descriptions. As items of a list they must be demarcated by commas:
The definitive copula-sentence templates of interdependent adjectives The interdependent-adjective sequence of each of the following sentences has the form of the copula sentence of which the predicate noun defines the subject:
Contracted interdependent-adjectives sequences Sentences often look as if an adjective that describes independently has conjoined with a sequence of interdependent adjectives. But such sentences are instances less of the conjoining than of the contracting of two sequences of interdependent adjectives. The next sentence contracts two depictions of `a Tokyo artist'. The comma between `quiet' and `self-effacing' indicates the duality of the depiction. Inasmuch as this is a list of two depictions, the comma correctly separates them:
The next sentences contracts three depictions of `ancestral home'.
The two depictions of `game sauce 'in the next sentence have contracted the separate descriptions `aged' and `highly spiced'. Hence the comma between them:
Independent and interdependent adjective sequences and the `and' test `Are they describing or defining?' is the criterion for distinguishing the independent-adjective sequence from the interdependent one. If they are describing, then `and' is capable of intervening. If they are defining then `and' cannot intervene. The following adjectives, for instance, are not saying of `a bonnet' that is `a chancellor's and is `floppy' and is `velvet' and is `doctoral':
They are saying that `the bonnet' is ( = ) `a chancellor's floppy velvet doctoral bonnet'. They are therefore defining `bonnet'. Applied to this sentence, the `and' test failed, revealing the definitive, interdependent character of its adjective sequence. Being definitive, that sequence is part of a naming sequence and is therefore a set of interdependent adjectives that must not be demarcated by commas. The next sentence will sustain the `and' test:
It is saying of the nuclear family's spirit that it is `nasty' and `stifling'. Sustaining the `and' test, these adjectives reveal themselves to be independent descriptions that must be demarcated by a comma. A caution The failure to distinguish independent and interdependent adjective sequences is the most common abuse of comma in the daily press. Writers should be on their guard when they read newspapers. EXERCISE 18 is appropriate here. |