In a Quandary over Commas?

Does this bring back memories of composition class?

How can one small punctuation mark (,) cause such a big headache?  Admit it!  Do you feel completely secure when deciding whether to place or omit commas in your writing?  You are not alone.

The dilemma of comma placement was recently brought to my attention because a friend of mine, a former English teacher, offered to proof a manuscript I am working on. She did a very thorough job, and I very much appreciated her careful editing skills.  However, I noticed immediately that we hold different opinions regarding use of commas. Are commas governed by hard and fast rules, or is there some wiggle room in their usage?  I needed to find out quickly.

I pulled Steven Pinker's The Sense of Style:  The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century off the shelf of my Linguistics reference books.  The information on the front book flap advises readers that "...they must negotiate the rules of correct usage, distinguishing the rules that enhance clarity and grace from myths and superstitions...."  Maybe the section on usage would provide me with ammunition in my campaign against what I consider to be excessive use of commas. The index listed ten pages, 285-294, devoted to comma usage.  The topic was obviously not a simple one!

Pinker explains that, in the past, decisions about comma placement were made to indicate a slight pause in pronunciation.  More recent rules are based both on sound and sentence structure. He observes that instructors of English composition often have to deal with both comma overuse and under use.  Comma overuse occurs when the writer incorrectly sets off elements that belong together, such as the subject and verb.  Comma under use, the opposite problem, occurs when the writer fails to set off supplementary information.  Take for example,  "The lot next to mine which is huge is still undeveloped."  If the writer is adding the phrase "which is huge" as non-essential information, the sentence should read, "The lot next to mine, which is huge, is still underdeveloped."

I get the main idea here, which is that essential information should not be separated by a comma, and that extra information should be set off by commas.  What I am saying is the decision is not always easy. For example, when the supplementary information is short, and you don't want the reader to pause, then a reasonable decision would be to omit the comma, as in "Finally this comma discussion has ended" (no comma after "finally").  Steven Pinker identifies this style as "light" or "open" punctuation.

A more definite rule that Pinker offers is the admonition against the dreaded comma splice, which is when a comma is used to join two sentences that can stand on their own.

Of course, a writer has to be able to recognize a complete sentence in order to follow the rule. Pinker gives several simple alternatives for correcting the comma splice.

Another major decision regarding commas, according to Pinker, is the serial comma, also known as the Oxford comma. A major function of commas is to separate items in a list. Compare "Please bring home cheese, wine and bread and butter pickles" (no comma before third item) to "Please bring home cheese, wine, and bread and butter pickles" (additional comma).  The Oxford comma makes the second sentence easier to understand.  Pinker recommends its use.

Wow!  Some people are very serious about the Oxford comma!

My takeaway from a quick investigation of comma use and misuse is that some rules are non-negotiable, like the comma splice, while other rules require attention to elements such as the flow of the sentence, the structure of the sentence,  and meaning of the sentence.  Now I'm not sure if I have gotten myself out of a quandary over commas or become more neurotic about using correct punctuation.  How about you?

For great escapism, try learning a new language

Summer is wearing on in my home town, but unfortunately both vacation time and budget have been expended for the season. Finding myself in need of a touch of escapism, I picked up a book at the public library with an attractive cover entitled Wales,  The First Place.

This is not my first interest in the language and country of Wales.  I have read How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn several times and have always wondered how to pronounce the double l in his last name.

Then several years ago, my husband Wayne and I almost traveled to Wales and had plans to stay in a coastal resort town called Llandudno, in North Wales.  That time I looked up the pronunciation of the Welsh double l and practiced the new sound (some hissing required!).

My current interest in Wales began with the discovery of a Welsh author, Jan Morris, who writes lyrical pieces about her native land.  She contributed the introduction to Wales,  The First Place. In it, she mentioned that Shakespeare declared the Welsh language to be "skimble-skamble stuff."  I was intrigued.  What do you suppose Welsh sounds like?

I went to my go-to online language course, Duolingo, and found that Welsh is one of the languages offered for free study.  I couldn't resist.  I added Welsh to the list of languages I study daily.

A new language brings with it a frisson of excitement for me.  Will I be able to connect the new language to one I know?  Where will I find the subject and verb in the sentence?  Will the spoken language match the written language?

Beginning Welsh lessons - Duolingo.com

 

I made a few preliminary hypotheses about the Welsh language after several attempts at the circles labeled Greeting 1 and Greeting 2.  First, I was relieved to find that Welsh appears to be written more or less as it is spoken. (I have been struggling with another Celtic language, Irish, on this point.) Then I found some words that relate to English, which makes them easier to retain, such as helo (hello) and sori (sorry).  Nouns seem to appear before adjectives, as they do in many languages; for example, bore da in Welsh literally means "morning good."   And I heard the same familiar sound used at the end of the Scottish word "loch" in the Welsh words for you (chi) and thanks (diolch).  The Welsh word for tired, wedi blino, made me smile, for some unknown reason.

A taste of Welsh culture was included in the language lessons when the names Megan, Sioned (a "sh" sound for the "s") Eleri, Dylan, and Gareth were used in greetings.  And the small red dragon used as the icon for the Duolingo Welch program let my thoughts travel back to King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

  
  

Duolingo  Welsh dragon

A new language provided me a much appreciated respite from ordinary life.  And with the approximately 6000 languages in the world, I may have found a never-ending fountain of enjoyment.

Is "tiny" a new marketing tool?

"Tinycards - get the app,"  ran the new offer from my favorite language learning site, Duolingo.  I was intrigued by the name.  What in the heck was a "tinycard"?

Even though the description of tinycards included the word "flashcards" (not really my favorite learning method), I still downloaded the free app on my mobile devices because the name, "tinycards" was something new.  And I must admit that Duolingo has made rote learning into a very entertaining game.  You can try it for yourself at Tinycards.  

Then I tuned into HGTV,  my favorite TV show when I am busy with kitchen duties.  "Tiny houses" are the topic of frequent episodes - "Tiny House Hunters," "Tiny House Builders," "Tiny House, Big Living," to name a few.

I tried to recall in what context I had heard the adjective "tiny" used previously.  Of course every Christmas season,  Dickens' character Tiny Tim provides us with warm, fuzzy feelings towards our fellow man. I was now on a mission to find out if "tiny" is becoming a popular product name.

 A quick Google search confirmed my suspicions.  You can  place a stationery order online with "Tiny Prints."  If you want to shorten a URL, you can go to "TinyURL.com."  NPR will provide you with "Tiny Desk Concerts," an intimate musical experience, and you can get involved with "Tiny Rockets," a new niche in the small satellite launch market.

arstechnica.com

But why the choice of  "tiny'?  Why not "little,"  "petite," "minute," "miniature," or even "wee,"  all legitimate synonyms?  Does "tiny" convey a special shade of meaning?  "Tiny" to me feels, first of all, non-threatening, affectionate, and desirable.  I must admit to a love of small objects, which my collections of miniature liquor bottles, small travel souvenirs, and little pots of succulent plants and cacti can bear witness.

So I move into the world of conjecture.  Are we looking for an antidote to the concept of "bigness"? We no longer exist just in our small communities but view ourselves as citizens of the world.  We may soon begin to conquer the vast expanses of space with exploration of Mars.  Our TV screens have become so huge that they dominate regular size family rooms.  We often hear about the virtues of downsizing and minimalist life styles. Are we weary of being asked if we want to super-size food and drink orders?

"Tiny" has my attention. I want to put more "tiny"into my life.   Now if dress manufacturers will only rename my usual dress size of medium to tiny, I'll be even more impressed with the power of adjectives.