[Ads-l] Why I miss that comma

[Jonathan Lighter]

These people need to learn that time is money.

JL

On Wed, Nov 18, 2015 at 10:34 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Why I miss that comma
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> "Their languages were Celtic ones, today represented by Welsh, Irish and
> Breton across the Channel in France."
>
> isn't meant to be completed as something like:
>
> "... Welsh, Irish and Breton across the Channel in France, Manx on the Isle
> of Man, and Cornish in Cornwall."
>
>
> Understanding that probably takes less than a nanosecond of extra mental
> effort, but why is there felt a need to delay understanding by any degree
> whatsoever?
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
>
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-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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