![]() ![]() – Garrison Keillorīryan Garner, in A Dictionary of Modern American Usage, summarises as follows: “Most usage authorities accept comma splices when (1) the clauses are short and closely related, (2) there is no danger of a miscue, and (3) the context is informal.” I’ll quote from a few that are close at hand. We saw Bob’s cousins Denny and Donny, they live outside Las Vegas where they race cars on weekends. The variations are infinite, the formula remains the same. – Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy “They weren’t doing anything wrong, there was nothing to stop them.” – Jessica Mitford, The American Way of DeathĪ self can contain or be contained by something that is either less or more than a self, it can never contain or be contained by a self. – James Thurber, The Pleasure Cruise, and How to Survive It ![]() this habit of writing comma-joined sentences is not uncommon in both older and present-day fiction.” Non-fiction, too:ĭon’t get excited and rush around accusing people of stealing your Corona, just relax. Robert Burchfield, in The New Fowler’s Modern English Usage, comments that “wide variation can be seen in the work of many contemporary writers and, even more so, in that of earlier centuries. Current convention holds that they are inappropriate for many formal contexts, but it’s a bit more complicated than that. Yet they were not always considered ungrammatical this is a relatively recent development. There’s no clearer indication of this intolerance than the fact that comma splices are also known as comma errors, comma faults, and comma blunders. Miss Doreen Valvona was a good reader, she had the best eyes in the ward. Moreover, when authorities dismiss certain techniques out of hand without mentioning the breadth of their usage in various stylistic and historical contexts, they can perpetuate fear of making mistakes and ignorance of how language works.Īpes have flat feet, we have sprung arches. But it also tends to be simplistic and misleading, failing to reflect the subtlety and complexity with which skilled writers consciously use comma splices. This kind of advice can be helpful to learners, or writers who want a quick yes–no answer. “nly do it if you’re famous,” Lynne Truss warns. Even when they are acknowledged to be occasionally acceptable, we are told to avoid them to be on the safe side. We are urged to spurn them, to expunge them swiftly and severely as though they were insidious “germs” in our otherwise unsullied text. Some people describe comma splices as an error, a horror, a nightmare, an insult - something terrible, to be dreaded and denounced. The blue, igloo-roof over the rock went away to a vast distance, the visible world expanded with a leap. ![]() I had worn the wrong shoes, they had heels. Now I’d like to share a few more examples of their appearance in edited text (they are spliced into this post), and to discuss some of the advice and commentary on their use. In a previous post I explained what comma splices are, and how and when to avoid them. I am such a good man, at bottom, such a good man, how is it that nobody ever noticed it? – Samuel Beckett, Malone Dies
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