Hi, Alexander! Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:
AK> The comma before "and" is just an unnecessary thing that
AK> provides anything to make the understanding more clear.
It's a matter of style, not an absolute requirement, and some people
recommend using it only when it's needed to avoid confusion:
Through the window I saw John, a basketball player and a friend of
mine.
What is this friend's name, and is he a basketball player? I have no idea. I
found the example in Wikipedia... I didn't personally invent it.
I asked for coffee with a breakfast of pancakes, bacon & eggs, hot
buttered toast and hash brown potatoes.
At 5WPM I can type an added comma without having to fret about whether someone
from ElseWhere will think I buttered the hash browns *after* they were cooked.
For me it's easier to use the Oxford comma routinely in such a list than to go
into detail about why buttering such things on the plate may not work.
If Denis asks I'll do the latter, but other folks may not care. :-Q
BTW, here's a joke Dallas found shortly before your message arrived:
I like cooking my family and my pets.
-- commas save lives
AK> With the same success you can put "and" before every
AK> comma in the list. ;-)
I suppose you could in many cases. But as Anton says, in English it
is generally considered desirable to avoid unnecessary verbiage.... [chuckle].
--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
* Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)
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