THE COMMA.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

In order to properly understand some of the rules that are given in the following pages, it is absolutely necessary to have a clear understanding of the difference between a sentence and a clause. A sentence is a combination of words expressing a complete thought, and usually followed by a period; a clause is a distinct part of a sentence. Some sentences are simple in form, and have but one subject and one finite verb; as, “Language is part of a man’s character.”—Coleridge. Other sentences are made up of clauses, each clause having a subject and a verb; in other words, several clauses are sometimes joined together to form one sentence; as, “New forms of beauty start at once into existence, and all the burial places of the memory give up their dead.”—Macaulay. It will be easily seen that clauses will be more readily recognized with the eye, and more easily comprehended, if they are separated from each other by punctuation marks. This will be especially so, if the clauses are long.

In preparing this hand-book, the aim has been to avoid, as much as possible, the use of technical terms. Whenever such terms are used, explanations will usually be found under the head of Remarks.

Rule I. Independent Clauses.—Independent clauses should be separated from each other by commas.

EXAMPLES.

“Savage was discomposed by the intrusion or omission of a comma, and he would lament an error of a single letter as a great calamity.”—Dr. Johnson.

“Man wants but little here below,

Nor wants that little long.”—Goldsmith.

“Take short views, hope for the best, and trust in God.”—Sydney Smith.

REMARKS.

1. An independent clause is one that is not dependent on any other clause for the completion of its meaning; as, Take short views | hope for the best | and trust in God. Independent clauses are frequently connected by and, or, nor, but.

2. When the clauses are short and closely united, the comma may be omitted; as, “Death had lost its terrors and pleasure its charms.”

3. When the clauses are long and divided into smaller portions by commas, they should be separated from each other by semicolons. See Rule I. p. [23].

Rule II. Dependent Clauses.—Dependent clauses should be separated from each other by commas.

EXAMPLES.

“If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone. A man, Sir, should keep his friendship in constant repair.”—Dr. Johnson.

“When Dr. Franklin wished to gain his enemy, he asked him to do him a favor.”

“Clap an extinguisher upon your irony, if you are unhappily blest with a vein of it.”—Lamb.

“Although we seldom followed advice, we were all ready enough to ask it.”—Goldsmith.

REMARKS.

1. A clause is said to be dependent, when it depends on some other clause to complete its meaning; as, When Dr. Johnson wished to gain his enemy | he asked him to do him a favor. The first clause of this sentence would not be complete in meaning without the second. Dependent clauses usually commence with if, when, since, because, until, &c.

2. When clauses are closely connected, the comma may be omitted; as, Mozart published some music when seven years of age.

Rule III. Relative Clauses.—1. A relative clause should be separated from the rest of the sentence by a comma.

2. But the comma should be omitted, when the relative clause is so closely connected with what precedes that it cannot be dropped without destroying the sense.

EXAMPLES.

1. “Men in a corner, who have the unhappiness of conversing too little with present things.”—Swift.

“The waters are nature’s storehouse, in which she locks up her wonders.”—Izaak Walton.

“He had on a coat made of that cloth called thunder-and-lightning, which, though grown too short, was much too good to be thrown away.”—Goldsmith.

2. “Althworthy here betook himself to those pleasing slumbers which a heart that hungers after goodness is apt to enjoy when thoroughly satisfied.”—Fielding.

“A man who is good for making excuses is good for nothing else.”—Dr. Franklin.

“Like Cæsar, Cortes wrote his own commentaries in the heart of the stirring scenes which form the subject of them.”—Prescott.

REMARKS.

1. Relative clauses are generally introduced by the relative pronouns who, which, that, or what.

2. A comma should be placed before the relative clause, even when it is necessary to complete the meaning of the antecedent,—

a. When the relative is immediately followed by a word or an expression inclosed in commas; as, “As a man, he may not have deserved the admiration which he received from those, who, bewitched by his fascinating society, worshiped him nightly in his favorite temple at Button’s.”—Macaulay.

b. When the relative has several antecedents that are separated from each other by commas; as, “All those arts, rarities, and inventions, which vulgar minds gaze at, the ingenious pursue, and all admire, are but the relics of an intellect defaced with sin and time.”—South.

3. The words of which are sometimes preceded by a comma, even when they are necessary to complete the meaning of the antecedent: as, “His mind was formed of those firm materials, of which nature formerly hammered out the Stoic, and upon which the sorrows of no man living could make an impression.”—Fielding.

Rule IV. Parenthetical Words and Phrases. When single words and phrases break the connection between closely related parts of a sentence, they should usually be separated by commas from the rest of the sentence.

1. Words used parenthetically,—

2. Phrases used parenthetically,—

EXAMPLES.

1. “As an orator, indeed, he was not magnetic or inspiring.”—G. W. Curtis.

“There is, perhaps, no surer mark of folly, than to attempt to correct the natural infirmities of those we love.”—Fielding.

“There is, however, a limit at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue.”—Burke.

2. “I had grown to my desk, as it were, and the wood had entered my soul.”—Lamb.

“In short, he is a memorable instance of what has been often observed, that the boy is the man in miniature.”—Boswell.

REMARKS.

1. Words and phrases are said to be used parenthetically, when they obstruct, as it were, the flow of the sentence, and might be dropped without destroying the sense.

2. Whenever parenthetical words and phrases readily coalesce with the rest of the sentence, it is better to omit punctuation marks; as, “I am therefore exceedingly unwilling that anything, however slight, which my illustrious friend thought it worth while to express, with any degree of point, should perish.”—Boswell.

3. A distinction should be made between words used parenthetically, and adverbs qualifying particular words; as, “And with learning was united a mild and liberal spirit, too often wanting in the princely colleges of Oxford.”—Macaulay.

“That, too, has its eminent service.”—Burke.

Rule V. Parenthetical Expressions.—Expressions of a parenthetical character should be separated from the rest of the sentence by commas.

EXAMPLES.

“She was tumbled early, by accident or design, into a spacious closet of good old English reading, without much selection or prohibition, and browsed at will upon that fair and wholesome pasturage.”—Lamb.

“He [Sheridan] who, in less than thirty years afterward, held senates enchained by his eloquence and audiences fascinated by his wit, was, by common consent both of parent and preceptor, pronounced a most impenetrable dunce.”—Moore.

“It is clear that Addison’s serious attention, during his residence at the university, was almost entirely concentrated on Latin poetry.”—Macaulay.

REMARKS.

1. A distinction should be made between parenthetical words and parenthetical expressions.

a. Parenthetical words can be omitted without destroying the sense. See examples under Rule IV.

b. Parenthetical expressions obstruct the flow of the sentence, but can not be omitted without either destroying the sense, or changing the meaning intended to be conveyed. See examples given above.

2. When parenthetical expressions are short, or closely connected with the rest of the sentence, it is better to omit punctuation marks.

3. Writers differ very much in omitting or using commas in parenthetical expressions. It is sometimes immaterial whether punctuation marks are used or not, but, in many cases, there are few rules so well adapted to bring out the meaning of the writer.

Rule VI. Inverted Expressions.—Expressions which are not in their natural order, are frequently separated from the rest of the sentence by a comma.

EXAMPLES.

“In everything that relates to science, I am a whole Encyclopædia behind the rest of the world.”—Lamb.

“In all unhappy marriages I have seen, the great cause of evil has proceeded from slight occasions.”—Steele.

REMARKS.

1. The natural order of the first sentence is, I am a whole Encyclopædia behind the rest of the world in everything that relates to science.

2. When the inverted expression is closely connected with what follows, the commas should be omitted; as,—

“Of Addison’s childhood we know little.”—Macaulay.

“That inward man I love that’s lined with virtue.”—Beaumont and Fletcher.

Rule VII. Short Quotations.—Short quotations should be separated from what precedes by a comma.

EXAMPLES.

The Italians say, “Good company in a journey makes the way to seem shorter.”

A writer in Lippincott’s Magazine says, “It is the little courtesies that make up the sum of a happy home.”

Schiller has said, “Men’s words are ever bolder than their deeds.”

REMARKS.

1. An expression resembling a quotation should be preceded by a comma; as, “Therefore the question still returns, What is the First Principle of all things?”

2. Quotations and general statements introduced by that are frequently preceded by a comma; as, “Tacitus says of Agricola, that he governed his family, which many find to be a harder task than to govern a province.”—Arthur Helps.

3. When single words or a part of a sentence are quoted, a comma should not be used; as, “His wife was a domesticated, kind-hearted old soul, who had come with him ‘from the queen city of the world,’ which, it seemed, was Philadelphia.”—Dickens.

4. Quotation divided. “A man could not set his foot down,” says Cortes, “unless on the corpse of an Indian.”—Prescott.

5. When the quotation is a long one, it should be preceded by a colon.

Rule VIII. Person or Thing Addressed.—The name of the person or thing addressed, together with its modifying words, should be separated from the rest of the sentence by commas.

EXAMPLES.

“Now, Macaulay, when I am gone, you’ll be sorry that you never heard me speak.”—Sydney Smith.

“Why, Romeo, art thou mad?”—Shakespeare.

“My lords, we are called upon, as members of this house, as men, as Christians, to protest against such horrible barbarity!”—Pitt.

REMARK.

When strong emotion is expressed, an exclamation point should be used; as, “O Hamlet! thou hast cleft my heart in twain.”—Shakespeare.

Rule IX. Participial Clauses.—Participial clauses, having no grammatical connection with the rest of the sentence, should be separated from what follows, and, if they do not commence a sentence, from what precedes, by commas.

EXAMPLES.

“Success being now hopeless, preparations were made for a retreat.”—Alison.

“Such being their general idea of the gods, we can now easily understand the habitual tone of their feelings towards what was beautiful in nature.”—Ruskin.

REMARK.

Being or having been is usually the sign of a participial clause.

Rule X. Verb Omitted.—When a verb, previously used, is omitted, a comma usually takes its place.

EXAMPLES.

“Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.”—Bacon.

“Chaucer painted persons; Spenser, qualities.”

REMARKS.

1. When the comma takes the place of an omitted verb, the main clauses or numbers should be separated by semicolons.

2. Sometimes a comma does not take the place of an omitted verb; as, “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.”—Bacon.

“Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man.”—Bacon.

Rule XI. Appositives.—A noun in apposition and its modifiers should be separated by commas from the rest of the sentence.

EXAMPLES.

“When death, the great Reconciler, has come, it is never our tenderness we repent of but our severity.”—George Eliot.

“The exploits of Mercury himself, the god of cunning, may be easily imagined to surpass everything achieved by profaner hands.”—Leigh Hunt.

REMARKS.

1. An appositive is a word, placed by the side of some other word to explain or characterize it.

2. The comma should be omitted,—

a. When two nouns without modifiers are in apposition; as, Cicero the orator was born near Arpinum. If the sentence was, Cicero, the greatest of Roman orators, was born near Arpinum, commas would be necessary.

b. When a noun and a pronoun are in apposition; as, Mercury himself surpassed everything achieved by profaner hands.

c. When two pronouns are in apposition; as, He himself did this.

d. Between the parts of a person’s name; as, George William Curtis.

3. In annexing titles to a person’s name, whether the titles are abbreviated or written in full, commas must be used; as, Richard Whately, D. D., Archbishop of Dublin.

Rule XII. Words in Pairs.—Words in pairs should have a comma between each pair.

EXAMPLES.

“In all the characters, patriots and tyrants, haters and lovers, the frown and sneer of Harold were discernible in an instant.”—Macaulay.

“Liberty and union, now and forever, one and inseparable.”—Webster.

Rule XIII. Unconnected Words.—When two words, of the same part of speech, are not connected by a conjunction, a comma should be placed between them.

EXAMPLES.

“He had in himself a radiant, living spring of generous and manly action.”—Burke.

“A still, small voice.”—Kings.

“Where sits our sulky, sullen dame,

Gathering her brows like gathering storm,

Nursing her wrath to keep it warm.”—Burns.

REMARKS.

1. When two nouns, the subjects of a verb, are not connected by a conjunction, a comma should be placed between the two words and also after the second; as, “Indignation, expostulation, were powerless upon him as a mist upon a rock.”—Macdonald.

2. When two adjectives come together, the first qualifying the second adjective and also the noun, a comma should not be used; as, A beautiful white horse.

3. A word repeated for emphasis usually has a punctuation mark before and after it; as,—

“Water, water, everywhere,

Nor any drop to drink.”—Coleridge.

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also.”—John xiv. 12.

Rule XIV. A Series of Words.—1. When a series of words, of the same part of speech, are connected by and, or, nor, they should not be separated from each other by punctuation marks.

“The fruits and flowers and shrubs sent forth grateful perfumes.”—Irving.

Some writers place a comma before each and. This, however, is not necessary.

2. When a conjunction is used only with the last word in the series, a comma should be placed before the conjunction and between the other words.

The fruits, flowers, and shrubs sent forth grateful perfumes.

3. When the conjunctions are omitted, a comma should be placed between each word and also at the end of the series.

The fruits, flowers, shrubs, sent forth grateful perfumes.

REMARKS.

1. When the last word in the series precedes only a single word, the comma should be omitted; as, “A refined, thoughtful, warm-hearted, pure-souled Englishman.”

2. When two words or expressions are connected by or, the latter explaining the former, the explanatory word or expression should be separated from the rest of the sentence by a comma or commas; as, “The love of variety, or curiosity of seeing new things, which is the same, or at least a sister passion to it, seems woven into the frame of every son and daughter of Adam.”—Sterne.

Rule XV. Phrases and Clauses.—Phrases and clauses, either with or without conjunctions, having a mutual relation to some other word in the sentence, should be separated from each other and from what follows by commas.

EXAMPLES.

“Purity of style, and an easy flow of numbers, are common to all Addison’s Latin poems.”—Macaulay.

“The unbought grace of life, the chief defense of nations, the nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise, is gone.”—Burke.

“The little that is known, and the circumstance that little is known, must be considered as honorable to him.”—Macaulay.

“Books that you can carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are the most useful after all.”—Dr. Johnson.

REMARKS.

1. A phrase is one of the smaller divisions of a sentence, and consists of two or more words. Apart from the rest of the sentence, it is incomplete in meaning. It does not, like a clause, include a subject and a verb.

2. When two brief expressions are connected by a conjunction, it is better to omit punctuation marks; as, “Good company and good discourse are the very sinews of virtue.”—Izaak Walton.

3. When words and phrases form a series, a conjunction being used only with the last phrase, they should be separated from each other and from what follows by commas; as, “Virtue, merit, and everything that is praiseworthy, will be made the subject of ridicule and buffoonery.”—Addison.

Rule XVI. Logical Subject.—When the logical subject ends with a verb, or is separated into parts by commas, or is unusually long, a comma should be placed between the logical subject and the main verb.

EXAMPLES.

“This imaginary promise of divine aid thus mysteriously given, appeared to him at present in still greater progress of fulfillment.”—Irving.

“The voice of praise, too, coming from those to whom we had thought ourselves unknown, has a magic about it that must be felt to be understood.”—Charles Lever.

“Those who can put the best countenance upon the outrages of this nature which are offered them, are not without their secret anguish.”—Addison.

REMARKS.

1. The logical subject consists of the name of the person or thing, of which something is affirmed, together with its modifying words. It is “the subject according to the real meaning or logic of the sentence.”

2. Some writers always place a comma before the verb, when its subject consists of many words.

Rule XVII. Contrasted Expressions.—Contrasted expressions or comparisons should be separated by a comma.

EXAMPLES.

“Of the other two men, one was a species of giant, the other a sort of dwarf.”—Hugo.

“The more I reflected upon it, the more important it appeared.”—Goldsmith.

“As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.”—Psalms.

“Master books, but do not let them master you. Read to live, not live to read.”—Bulwer.

REMARKS.

1. When the comparison is short and the words closely connected, the comma may be omitted.

2. When so—that, so—as, rather—than, more—than, connect expressions, the comma is usually omitted; as, “Ingratitude never so thoroughly pierces the human heart as when it proceeds from those in whose behalf we have been guilty of transgression.”—Fielding.

When, however, the expressions themselves are divided into smaller parts by commas, or are unusually long, they should be separated by a comma; as,—

“So over-violent, or over-civil,

That every man with him was God or Devil.”—Dryden.

3. When two short expressions are united by as or than, a comma should not be used; as,—

“He knew what’s what, and that’s as high

As metaphysic wit can fly.”—Butler.

When, however, the expressions are long, it is better to use a comma; as, “I have no more pleasure in hearing a man attempting wit and failing, than in seeing a man trying to leap over a ditch and tumbling into it.”—Dr. Johnson.

4. When the first expression is negative and the other affirmative, a comma should be placed between the expressions and before the negative word, if it does not commence a sentence; as, “The world generally gives its admiration, not to the man who does what nobody else even attempts to do, but to the man who does best what multitudes do well.”—Macaulay.

If, however, a finite verb immediately precedes the negative word, the comma should be omitted; as, “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”—Confucius.

Rule XVIII. Numeral Figures.—Arabic numbers should be separated into periods of three figures each, commencing at the right.

EXAMPLE.

2,509,909,456.

REMARK.

Dates should not be separated into periods; as, 1877.

Rule XIX. Expressions at the End of Sentences.—It is frequently necessary, at the end of a sentence, to separate an expression beginning with a preposition from the rest of the sentence, in order to avoid ambiguity.

EXAMPLES.

“He trudged along, unknowing what he sought,

And whistled as he went, for want of thought.”—Dryden.

“Angling is always to be considered as a stick and a string, with a fly at one end and a fool at the other.”—Swift.

GENERAL REMARK.

A comma should always be used, when it aids in bringing out the meaning of the writer, or in avoiding ambiguity.