North & South – June 2019

OPINION

86 | NORTH & SOUTH|JUNE 2019

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SOMEPEOPLEmanagetogeneratean

enormousamountofexcitementand

outrageovercommas.Whichisodd,

becausethey’reseeminglysuchinoffen-

sivepunctuationmarks.TaketheOx-

ford(orserial)comma.I getaskedmy

positiononthiswiththesamegravity

asaninquiryaboutmembershipofthe

MasonicLodge.

Forthosewhoarehazyaboutsuch

things,theOxfordcommais theoneused

beforeandororina list:thusa,b,andc

(asopposedtoa, b andc).Ina 2017legal

decisionthat,astheGuardiannoted,

“willdelightgrammarnerdsandOxford

commaenthusiastsanywhere”,a group

oftruckdriversinMainewona court

appealbasedontheambiguitycausedby

a missingOxfordcomma.Andyou

thoughtpunctuationwasmerefrippery.

Mypositionis thatpunctuationshould

bea tooltoenhanceclarity,whichbasi-

callymeansnotusingtheOxfordcomma

insimplelists,suchas“dogs,catsand

hamsters”, but considering using it

Women, Commas

and Clauses

Whythere’snosuchthingassimple,

inoffensive punctuation.

evenwinyoua courtcase.

First,weneeda coupleofdefinitions.

Aclauseislikea teenagesentence:it

oftenlooksandsoundslikea sentence,

butit doesn’tliveonitsown.“Sheen-

joysdrinkingChampagne.”isa sen-

tence:it startswitha capitalletter,ends

witha full-stop,andsayssomething.

Nowconsider,“Sheenjoysdrinking

Champagne,butit canoftenlandherin

trouble.”Whatwaspreviouslya sen-

tencehasbecomehalfa sentence:it is

nowanindependentclause,andis add-

ed(viatheconjunction“but”)toanoth-

erclausetomakea longersentence.

Notethatsomeclausesareverydepend-

ent(suchas“WhenI drinkCham-

pagne”)andcan’tliveontheirown.

Ininitialexample1, wearebasically

saying,“Womenareunsuitablefor

structuralengineering.”Wecompletely

establishwhowe’retalkingaboutusing

thewordwomen,butthenwehelpfully

inserta clauseintothesentencetopro-

videsomeadditionalinformation.This

insertedclause(“whoprefertoworkat

home”)maybehighlyinflammatory,but

itdoesn’tdefinewhowe’retalking

about,sowecallit a non-definingclause

andsignalitsremovabilitybyputting

commasaroundit.

Compareinitialexample2.Here,we

signalthatwe’retalkingnotaboutall

women,butaboutjustthatgroupof

womenwhoprefertoworkathome.

Here“whoprefertoworkathome”isa

definingclause:it isanessentialpartof

identifyingjustthatparticulargroupwe

wanttotalkabout.Wewanttosingleout

justthosewomenwhoprefertoworkat

home,sowedon’taddanycommasand

werunthesentenceseamlesslythrough.

Thesamegoesfor“Menwhowearbow-

ties”and“Dogsthatbitepeople”.These

containdefiningclausesthatnaildown

whoorwhatwearetalkingabout:not

allmen,notalldogs,justthoseoneswith

a particularunpleasantcharacteristic.

I know.You’rewonderingwhyit has

tobe(andit doeshavetobe)“Dogsthat

bitepeople”andnot“Dogswhichbite

people”,andyou’regoingtobethrash-

ingyourwaythroughsleeplessnights

wonderingaboutit.Butthat will have

to wait for another day. +

wheretherearelonger,morecomplex

phrasesandclauses.

I’llreadilyadmit,though,thatcom-

mascandrasticallyaltermeaning– and,

intheprocess,evencauseoffence– ina

varietyofsituations.Considerthefol-

lowingexample:

1.Women,whoprefertowork

athome,areunsuitablefor

structuralengineering.

Thegrammarianwhoused

thisexamplethengleefully

exclaimed,“Removethe

commas,removetheinsult!”

2.Womenwhoprefertowork

athomeareunsuitablefor

structuralengineering.

What’shappeninghere?Whydoesit

sounddifferent?Howcanthehumble

comma,theslightpolitepause,change

everything?We’vestumbledintothe

areaofdefiningandnon-definingclaus-

es.Yes,theysoundtedious,buttheyare

usefulthingstobeabletoidentify,asthe

above example shows. And they might

i’ve already eaten mummyby ray prebble