[Grammar] joining commas

[red an' dead]

I have just read that a joining comma (a connecting word such as and, or, but, while, and yet with an apostrophe in front) should not be used for other than to join two compete sentences together. Could anybody tell me if the following clause (beginning with and and ending with faction), intended as a weak interruption, is acceptable?

"Yeah, because with there, presently, an acknowledgement of where chemist shop and some lunatic parallel association inevitable, it was through one such dispensing, and when in relation to a certain marganalized faction, points of some commonality did feature me, some days back."

I'm sorry if that sounds convoluted.... However, from just now looking at the sentence italicised I'm inclined to think I can view that comma before and the one immediately following faction as a pair of gapping commas. Can I do that to the extent of no longer having to view the first as a joining comma?

All the best,

Red an' Dead

 

[SoothingDave]

Who is torturing you by making you subclassify your commas?

That sentence is horrible and I have no idea what it is talking about. But it's not because a "joining comma" was used as a "gapping comma" or vice versa or whatever. It's because it seems to be an aggregation of clauses and phrases with no apparent center.

 

[red an' dead]

Hello SoothingDave,

sorry but I do beg to differ with your analysis. I'll try to keep it as simple as I can. I was for amusments sake thinking about the different meanings or associations a word can have. For example groom, which can be about anything from someone about to be married, or how they go about combing their hair. Hence with chemist shop and some parallel lunatic association. In other words as somewhere that dispenses medicines, the same time as it would cater for desperate junkies there to cash scripts to feed their habits. Thats as much as needs saying I think, and maybe the rest can be worked out without any help from me. Whether badly written or not isn't the issue:so far as it makes sense, which I believe it does.

All the best,

Red an' Dead

It's a mute point, but the full quotation should include the words some years back, as opposed to days.

 

[Tarheel]

Who is torturing you by making you subclassify your commas?

Not
only are we learning things about commas we've never heard of before,
but
we are learning new ways to punctuate sentences.
And
it doesn't matter if something is badly written or
not
as long as there are no gapping commas.
However,
plunging necklines are things we should
definitely
look out for.
Hm.

 

[Grumpy]

Hello SoothingDave,

sorry but I do beg to differ with your analysis. I'll try to keep it as simple as I can. I was for amusments sake thinking about the different meanings or associations a word can have. For example groom, which can be about anything from someone about to be married, or how they go about combing their hair. Hence with chemist shop and some parallel lunatic association. In other words as somewhere that dispenses medicines, the same time as it would cater for desperate junkies there to cash scripts to feed their habits. Thats as much as needs saying I think, and maybe the rest can be worked out without any help from me. Whether badly written or not isn't the issue:so far as it makes sense,
which I believe it does.

All the best,

Red an' Dead

It's a mute point, but the full quotation should include the words some years back, as opposed to days.

I'm sorry "red an' dead", but I have to agree with SoothingDave. Your sentence is completely unintelligible. For example, "Yeah, because with there, presently, an acknowledgement of where chemist shop and some lunatic parallel association inevitable" is just a jumble of totally unrelated words and phrases which, together, have no meaning.
And, by the way, it's a called a "moot" point; not a "mute" point.

 

[red an' dead]

I'm sorry "red an' dead", but I have to agree with SoothingDave. Your sentence is completely unintelligible. For example, "Yeah, because with there, presently, an acknowledgement of where chemist shop and some lunatic parallel association inevitable" is just a jumble of totally unrelated words and phrases which, together, have no meaning.
And, by the way, it's a called a "moot" point; not a "mute" point.

Moot's good. All the best.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Red an' dead, are you sure you are a native English speaker who is British?

 

[red an' dead]

Was Thomas Carlyle one of the same who was?

Red an' dead", are you sure you are a native English speaker who is British?

Have you read him? No offence, but I doubt it.
By the way, what's the single pair of double quotation marks at the end of my moniker supposed to mean? I'd like to know the answer to that (if there is one?)

 

[MikeNewYork]

That was a typo. Why is your question mark inside the parentheses? Does Carlyle punctuate as badly as you did in your posts?

 

[emsr2d2]

That was a typo. Why is your question mark inside the parentheses? Does Carlyle punctuate as badly as you did in your posts?

That question mark shouldn't be there at all. "I'd like to know the answer to that (if there is one)" isn't a question.

I'm a late joiner to this thread. I wish I'd stayed in bed. That original sentence is incomprehensible nonsense, with or without commas. I think the writer might have been taking advantage of some of those desperate junkies' prescriptions!

 

[MikeNewYork]

I agree with you. I was not making a case for the question mark; I was asking about its strange placement. Punctuation was just one of the areas that caused me to question the OP's profile.

 

[emsr2d2]

I knew you weren't justifying the question mark. I simply used your quote to identify the question mark that was incorrectly used.

 

[red an' dead]

That question mark shouldn't be there at all. "I'd like to know the answer to that (if there is one)" isn't a question.

I'm a late joiner to this thread. I wish I'd stayed in bed. That original sentence is incomprehensible nonsense, with or without commas. I think the writer might have been taking advantage of some of those desperate junkies' prescriptions!

Sounds like a question to me. And like I've already said, if anyone can work out my piece, well that's just fine. If not, well that's equally OK. I could explain it word for word, but that would make it too easy. Anyway have a good kip, sounds like you need one.

 

[MikeNewYork]

It's not a question. And if you were a native English speaker, you would know that. As ems said, your "piece" is incomprehensible nonsense. Have a good day.

 

[Barb_D]

I don't wish to be insulting, but I must add my voice to those who say that it's quite impossible to work out your intended meaning.

It's one thing to try to be clever with your words.
It's another to think it's important for the reader to work out their own meaning. (Since I"m a business writer, where we strive for clarity this type of writing is annoying to me, but I know it exists.)
But it's another thing yet to be incomprehensible. I'm afraid you are in the third category.

 

[TheParser]

"It was through one such dispensing, and when in relation to a certain marginalized faction, points of some commonality did feature me."

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


Hello, Red an' dead:

I believe that the "weak interruption" that you refer to is actually the words "when in relation to a certain marginalized faction."

Therefore, maybe the "correct" punctuation should be something like:

"It was through one such dispensing, and, when in relation to a certain marginalized faction, points of some commonality did feature me."

The second and third commas indicate that the "weak interruption" could be deleted:

"It was through one such dispensing, and points of some commonality did feature me."

 

[SoothingDave]

Sounds like a question to me. And like I've already said, if anyone can work out my piece, well that's just fine. If not, well that's equally OK. I could explain it word for word, but that would make it too easy. Anyway have a good kip, sounds like you need one.

Why don't you humor us and tell us what the subject and predicate is of your sentence? I can't, for the life of me, identify what the main subject and verb are supposed to be.

 

[Tarheel]

I only have two people on my "Ignore" list. Now if you people would just stop quoting that one.

:roll: