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> with sometimes disastrous results There are other language like French without the Oxford comma and that does not lead to disastrous misunderstandings. It i
by gutnor 10y ago
> with sometimes disastrous results
There are other language like French without the Oxford comma and that does not lead to disastrous misunderstandings.
It is not like the English language, in general, does not have plenty of room for misinterpretation, even in every day speech. However if you look at the level of precision people need the Oxford coma for, you would have the impression you are in a project coin discussion for a small tweak in the java language causing compiler warnings.
- erelde 10y agoWe don't have the "Oxford comma", but we do do lists with commas. And it would be really confusing if we didn't.
- kuschku 10y agoThere’s also German, where lists are done as a, b, c and d. Oxford comma will get marked as mistake in an essay you write in Germany, and you’ll loose points for it.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- charlesdm 10y agoSame for Dutch. HOWEVER: why not use it? It often just does not make sense not to use it. If a sentence can be interpreted in an ambiguous way, I personally wouldn't really care.
- kuschku 10y agoBecause if you know no one will ever use it, you also reduce ambiguity. Then you can solve the remaining issues with using — instead.
- charlesdm 10y agoThe same grammar issue exists in, for example, Dutch. The Oxford comma however, does not exist there. While technically incorrect, my daily use of English has led me to start using it in Dutch as well. It often clears up sentences which are ambiguous. Interestingly enough most Dutch people find those sentences perfectly normal because they are unaware the Oxford comma exists.