> Craig,

I don't know where your British copy-editor got that extraordinary idea that
we don't use the comma in compound sentences.  Perhaps it is one sad result
of the disappearance of all things linguistic from our English syllabuses --
the result of the great neo-romantic banishment of grammar in the sixties
and onwards.  I have the commas for that purpose all over my book, as well
as a crop of semicolons and colons, and my copy-editor was perfectly happy
with them all.

You ask about my book -- that is a distinct temptation to send you, and
presumably (brazenly) everyone else! -- the advertisement for it and what
the cover looks like, but I don't think ATEG accepts attachments.  I'll send
them separately directly to you.

Edmond








Edmond,
>    I have a British publisher (Equinox) for my book, Meaning-Centered
> Grammar. Believe it or not, the copy editor took all those commas out
> (hundreds, maybe thousands over the course of the whole book), and did
> this despite the fact that I advocate their use in my chapter on
> grammar and writing. I was told at the time that he was following
> British practice. When I objected, I won the argument, and they were
> dutifully put back in. Perhaps I was misled?
>    It may be the systems that we get used to come to seem the most
> functional, perhaps because we find ways to defy expectations
> purposefully. If the final series comma is expected, then we can make a
> point by leaving it out, as in "peanut butter and jelly" or "down and
> out", which are often one thing rather than two.
>    Is your book as interesting as its title?
> 
> Craig
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>>> Craig,
>> 
>> Where did you get the idea that in Britain we don't put commas before
>> conjunctions in compound sentences?  We adopt the FANBOYS rule all right
>> (unless your speaker was gabbling at high speed -- or was Dickens' Mrs.
>> Lirriper or Joyce's Molly Bloom!).  As you say, we do largely omit the
>> comma
>> before the conjunction in a list of nouns or verbs, etc., though that is
>> not
>> absolute -- for there are occasions where the comma emphasizes
>> distinctness
>> for some reason:  for example, I kept this so-called 'Oxford' comma in the
>> title of my recent book 'Narrative, Perception, Language, and Faith'
>> because
>> the appearance in the argument of the topic of faith is intended to be
>> something of a surprise.
>> 
>> Edmond
>> 
>> 
>> Dr. Edmond Wright
>> 3 Boathouse Court
>> Trafalgar Road
>> Cambridge
>> CB4 1DU
>> England
>> 
>> Email: [log in to unmask]
>> Website: http://people.pwf.cam.ac.uk/elw33/
>> Phone [00 44] (0)1223 350256
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Just to complicate the talk (after all these votes for simplicity),
>>> British practice differs from American on this one. They don't ask for
>>> commas here (before the conjunction linking compound sentences) or
>>> before the final element in a series (with "and" or "or".) >
>>>     What you would hope for, I think, is consistency, not just a
>>> sporadic
>>> sprinkling. If the comma is included or left out DELIBERATELY and
>>> consistently, then I don't think we should command otherwise.
>>> 
>>> Craig
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>> 
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>> 
> 
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