Re: Use of a comma in this sentence.

Bob Cunningham <exw6sxq@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> het geskryf:

Whether there's anything wrong with the sentence with the
comma in place is open to discussion. It can be argued
that the writer wanted to show that there was a pause
after "lead to". The intent could have been to show that
the writer wanted to think carefully about what to say
the experience could lead to. One of the purposes of a
comma is to signal a pause.


Hmmmmm. "More than any other mark, the comma draws our
attention to the mixed origins of modern punctuation, and
its consequent mingling of two quite distinct functions:

1. To illuminate the grammar of the sentence.

2. To point up---rather in the manner of musical
notation---such literary qualities as rhythm, direction,
pitch, tone and flow.

This is why grown men have knock-down fights over the comma
in editorial offices: because these two roles of punctuation
sometimes collide head-on---indeed, where the comma is
concerned, they do it all the time. [...] The rise of
printing in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries meant
that a standard system of punctuation was urgently required
[...] they ignored the old marks that had aided the
reader-aloud. Books were now for reading and understanding,
not intoning."

--Lynne Truss, _Eats, Shoots and Leaves_


Those of us who have moved beyond the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries vote for using the comma [solely] to
illuminate the grammar of the sentence. Anyone ill-advised
enough to go the "musical notation" route will, in any case,
immeejutly founder under the sheer inadequacy of the
available punctuational marks for such a task. And anyone
trying to make this limited toolbox do both jobs (when it
doesn't remotely suffice for the one and scarcely suffices
for the other) is on a hiding to nowhere (whatever that
means), and more to be pitied than censured. Widgers not to
say they shouldn't be censured, of course, and even
raucously ridiculed.

It distresses me to observe that so many arguments about
puncheration, English usuage, grammar and so forth, if
pursued with sufficient doggedness (Hi, Bob!), eventually
reveal an increasingly familiar (and depressing) bedrock in
the form of "Look, _my_ English teacher said...", as if that
were the be-all and end-all of all discussion (and, of
course, with certain interlocutors, it sadly is).

Now I recall _my_ English teacher giving a lesson in which
she asserted, for examinable purposes, that a comma
represented a one-beat pause, a semi[-]colon a two-beat
pause, a colon a three-beat pause and a full[-]stop (AmE:
period) a four-beat pause. This is interesting as an
example of how wrong-headedness can be passed, generation to
generation, down the centuries (cf. the stability of class
structures), but it doesn't make it right. In fact, it's
ullage, ullage, ullage. For a start, it implies that a
semi-colon is two-thirds of a colon (which makes less sense
than a three-quarter supporting a scrum-half) and engenders
the false belief that a colon is a "stronger" mark of
punctuation than a semi[-]colon.

And, in practical terms, it leads to subsequent English
teachers tearing their hair because "You people have _no
idea_ what a comma is for" (and neither did we).


Where was I? Oh, yes... The puncherational mark used to
signal a pause is the horizontal ellipsis. Like the other
puncherational marks, it is overloaded (so, yes, it's not
the only thing we use it for).



.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: What is this comma for?
    ... Sense_ by Rudolf Flesch ... twenty-five pages to the history of punctuation, ... Modern style guides make it clear that a comma is ... still used to indicate a brief pause. ...
    (alt.usage.english)
  • Re: OT-Your getting nuked
    ... in which you missed placing a comma before a ... conjunction, which doesn't require one. ... wanted a pause longer than a comma but shorter than a colon. ... That's where most punctuation comes from. ...
    (rec.crafts.metalworking)
  • Re: "A but not B" as object of verb
    ... which would require to be represented by a comma if not a semicolon. ... represent a pause in a spoken sentence. ... As I stated before, with examples, I agree with Dr. Darling's statement, "Use commas to set off phrases that express contrast", in his Guide to Grammar and Writing. ...
    (alt.usage.english)
  • Re: This is what I do while you psychos are here
    ... Sherrie Lee wrote in ... comma after 'own' unless the strength of the new line suffices ... were the comma after 'searching' ... linebreaks do more than serve to pause. ...
    (rec.arts.poems)
  • Re: "A but not B" as object of verb
    ... require to be represented by a comma if not a semicolon. ... represent a pause in a spoken sentence. ... grammar is indifferent as to whether ...
    (alt.usage.english)