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

[Laurence Horn]

A useful addition to the literature on the Oxford comma unrelated to the
disambiguation question:

https://tinyurl.com/2p9rxayx

LH

On Tue, Jan 3, 2023 at 3:10 AM Martin Purdy <
00000bd8cf391c5b-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> Most cases you see online seem to be concocted, and are all slanted one
> way to produce the desired outcome.  If you want to "prove" the
> serial/Oxford comma removes ambiguity, pick a plural referent; for the
> reverse, pick a singular referent:
>
> The photo shows my parents, the Pope and Mother Teresa(ambiguous)
> The photo shows my parents, the Pope, and Mother Teresa
>
> The photo shows my sister, Mother Teresa, and the Pope (ambiguous)
> The photo shows my sister, Mother Teresa and the Pope
>
> I'm a fence-sitter as far as the serial comma goes for that reason, and
> will try to use whichever form is less ambiguous in anysituation.
>
> Martin (UK/NZ)
>
>
>     On Monday, January 2, 2023 at 03:22:48 AM GMT+13, dave at wilton.net <
> dave at wilton.net> wrote:
>
>
> Over the past few days I've struggled to find humorous examples of where
> inclusion of the serial comma creates ambiguity, but I've come up empty. I
> think the reason is that the ambiguity (usually?) arises out of confusion
> with an appositive phrase. Where the appositive would be silly, humor
> arises.
>
> "My parents, Ayn Rand and God" is funny (the first time) but not ambiguous.
>
> "My parents, Mary and John" is ambiguous but not funny.
>
> When it comes to using the serial comma:
>
> "Kendall Jenner, a woman in a hijab, and positive messaging" is ambiguous
> but not funny.
>
> "Mitt Romney, a woman in a hijab, and positive messaging" is funny but not
> ambiguous.
>
> "Mitt Romney, a woman in a hijab and positive messaging" is neither funny
> nor ambiguous.
>
> (These last are modifications of an example given by Stan Carey.)
>
> By avoiding the serial comma, any humor arising out of confusion with the
> appositive is also avoided. But ambiguity can result from either using or
> avoiding the serial comma.
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: "James Landau" <00000c13e57d49b8-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Sent: Saturday, December 31, 2022 8:51am
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: [ADS-L] Humorous Serial Comma Examples — Are They Genuine or
> Apocryphal?
>
>
>
> Here's an example that I founmd not amusing but definitely ambiguous.
>
> Lisa Scottoline  _Mistaken Identity_  New York: HarperCollins, 1999 ISBN
> 0-06-018747-6, page 99
>
> "Bennie picked her way through the clutter on the floor, unpacked files
> and wallpaper books, down the narrow path her computer table."
>
> The first time I read it, I interpreted "unpacked" as a verb and then was
> baffled by the strange grammar that produced.  It took several readings for
> me to understand that "unpacked" was the beginning of an appositive
> referring back to "clutter" and that "down...table" modified "picked".  The
> key was that double-decker prepositional phrase beginning "down".
> "unpacked...down" does not sound like plausible English, and if "unpacked"
> were a verb, there should be an "and" either before "unpacked" or after
> "books" to create proper parallelism for the verbs.  Also there should not
> be a comma before "down".
>
> By the way, my favorite humorous example: "He loaded the car with heavy
> luggage, two dogs and his wife."
> .
> James Landau
> jjjrlandau at netscape.com
>
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