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

Wed Dec 28 14:34:20 UTC 2022

It's a general problem with "gotcha" orthographic/grammatical "corrections." Such examples favor the "rule" over the context and point out "problems" with the construction that do not actually obtain.

For example, no one is going to think the writer believes their parents to be Ayn Rand and God. Rather than being an example of the necessity of the rule, it's an example of why the rule is a silly one.

The same applies all sorts of examples of "bad" sentences that have been lifted out the context which is needed to understand them. 

There are actual examples of ambiguity, and I'm sure some are funny. Those are the ones that should be used.

An example of one that might be funny to Christian theologians is "I believe in God, Jesus, and the holy spirit." No matter where you place the commas, you run into the problem of trinitarianism.

-----Original Message-----
From: "Stephen Goranson" <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, December 28, 2022 9:07am
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: [ADS-L] Humorous Serial Comma Examples — Are They Genuine or Apocryphal?

Is it certain that your "problem," Dave, universally obtains?
Stephen Goranson
retired pedagogue
retired construction worker
etc., etc.
________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
Sent: Wednesday, December 28, 2022 8:20 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Humorous Serial Comma Examples — Are They Genuine or Apocryphal?

Good work, G. The issue isn't ambiguity or ambivalence. It's the problem of
the reader bursting into uncontrollable laughter and calling out "Hey! Get
a load of this! Somebody needs to go back to ninth grade!"

JL

On Wed, Dec 28, 2022 at 8:09 AM dave at wilton.net <dave at wilton.net> wrote:

>
> 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://urldefense.com/v3/__https://quoteinvestigator.medium.com/52dc15d0f4a8__;!!OToaGQ!shRUcQWOF4j50Sm7psticHk1ZlrdkAOIltvH8uIyoIzb16RjKsT0VfFG7q3tHPaN9zzoDo8fHFb__RSQrxlHqA$
>
> Garson
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.americandialect.org__;!!OToaGQ!shRUcQWOF4j50Sm7psticHk1ZlrdkAOIltvH8uIyoIzb16RjKsT0VfFG7q3tHPaN9zzoDo8fHFb__RRcnjToSg$
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.americandialect.org__;!!OToaGQ!shRUcQWOF4j50Sm7psticHk1ZlrdkAOIltvH8uIyoIzb16RjKsT0VfFG7q3tHPaN9zzoDo8fHFb__RRcnjToSg$
>

--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.americandialect.org__;!!OToaGQ!shRUcQWOF4j50Sm7psticHk1ZlrdkAOIltvH8uIyoIzb16RjKsT0VfFG7q3tHPaN9zzoDo8fHFb__RRcnjToSg$

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

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