[Ads-l] Humorous Serial Comma Examples =?utf-8?Q?=E2=80=94_?=Are They Genuine or Apocryphal?

[dave@wilton.net]

Humor, or lack thereof, aside, my problem with such "examples" is that there is absolutely no ambiguity in them. The presence or absence of the serial comma makes no difference; no one is going to mistake the intended meaning. The important thing is clarity, not the comma.
 
Pedagogically, they give exactly the wrong lesson about language.
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: "ADSGarson O'Toole" <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
Sent: Tuesday, December 27, 2022 11:40pm
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: [ADS-L] Humorous Serial Comma Examples — Are They Genuine or Apocryphal?



Here are three examples of sentences without Oxford commas:

(1) Book dedication: Dedicated to my parents, Ayn Rand and God.

(2) The highlights of his global tour include encounters with Nelson
Mandela, an 800-year-old demigod and a dildo collector.

(3) Among those interviewed were his two ex-wives, Kris Kristofferson
and Robert Duvall.

The analysis is available on the medium website here. I concluded that
one example was constructed by a humorist. The other two are genuine
examples or comical ambiguity printed in newspapers.

https://quoteinvestigator.medium.com/52dc15d0f4a8

Garson

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org