Download A Short Course on Some Grammar Basics

A Short Course on Some Grammar and Punctuation Basics
Put simply, in order to write clearly and effectively, you have to know what the heck
you are doing with punctuation and the building blocks of the sentence. The “I don’t
know. It just kind of feels right” approach will not take you very far. In order to use
punctuation as a creative tool, you have to understand and be able to recognise “the
parts of speech” and “the parts of a sentence.”
The Basic Parts of Speech
(functional explanations of each appear throughout, but for now …)
Noun
animate things (people, animals, insects, etc.), inanimate things (material objects),
places, activities. E.g., Camilla, sledgehammer, Mumbai, murder.
Pronouns
are replacements for nouns. They come in three types/cases:
Subjective or nominative (they name, nom) e.g., I, you, he, she, it, we, they.
Objective or accusative (they stand accused by the subject and verb, poor things) e.g.,
me, you, him, her, it, us, them.
Possessive or genitive (I don’t have any cute way for you to remember “genitive,”
unless you know Latin, but my inclination is to make a joke about Jean Genet, the
French writer, but that wouldn’t help either) e.g., mine, yours, his, her/s, its, our,
their/s. The /s notes that possessives can stand before nouns to indicate possession or
in the place of noun complements. E.g., Those are her bullets v. Those bullets are hers.
Verb
words of activity or being which nouns can do or be. E.g., shoots, scores, am, is, have,
am going, will shoot, have gone.
Adjectives
modify nouns. E.g., pretty, tall, independent, rough.
Adverbs
modify verbs. E.g., quickly, slowly, independently, roughly.
Prepositions
indicate the relationship of their object to the rest of the sentence. The relationship is
generally one of time, place, logic, or manner. E.g., on, at, over, under, to, in, by.
Articles
Interjections
indicate, quite literally point to, nouns. They can be definite (the) or indefinite (a, an).
Usually stand-alone exclamations: Ouch! (or nowadays, colloquially, F*&k!, OMG!)
Demonstrative
& Possessive
Adjectives
(I’ll also include):
so similar to articles are demonstrative and/or possessive adjectives – e.g., these, those,
any, that, his, her, our.
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The Parts of a Sentence
The core of a sentence is known as an independent clause. In its most basic form, it is
made up of a noun subject and an appropriate verb for that noun subject:
Subject
– Verb
Jane goes. (Yes, we are going to have fun with Dick and Jane.)
s
- v
• Technically, that “verb appropriate to it” is called a predicate, because it
predicates, causes, or quite literally is the action of the noun subject.
Object
From s - v one can build a sentence; for instance, immediately one can add an object:
Jane opens the door.
s
-
v
-
o
An object is a noun which is appropriate to the verb (here something that can be
opened) and which makes sense in relation to the subject. (Yes, Jane can open a door.
She is about to slam it shut, too, after she screams obscenities at her brother, Dick ).
• Technically, the object is called the direct object, because it is directly the
thing to which the subject and verb are related. It is not to be confused with the
indirect object, which relates to the direct object and indirectly to the verb, often as a
destination. (Oy, here we go with confusing terminology. ☺)
Indirect
Object
Jane gave Dick the plans.
s
- v
- io
-
o
The plans are still the thing given, so it is the direct object of the s-v. But the plans are
given to Dick. He becomes the indirect object of the sentence, the object to whom or
which the direct object is given.
Subjective
& Objective
Complements
To the object of a sentence, one can add what is called technically a complement.
A complement is really just an adjective or something which is adjectival, something
that modifies and otherwise adds description to the object or subject; for instance,
Jane considers Dick incompetent.
s
-
v
-
o
-
oc
(yay, The OC! Just trying to keep it fun ☺)
One can also have a subjective complement:
Jane is sixteen. Jane is pretty. Jane is a girl.
s - v - sc
s - v - sc
s - v - sc
3
Object complements are easy to grasp grammatically. They are really just adjectives
that modify the noun that happens to sit in the position of the grammatical object in the
sentence.
Subjective complements are similar. They are words (usually adjectives or nouns) that
come after the verb, but which modify the subject of the sentence.
Adjectives
Simple modifier of nouns are called adjectives. When they come before the noun, they
are just plain old adjectives, and lovely for it:
The shiny gun shoots small, steel bullets.
adj - n(s) - v - adj - adj - n(o)
[n(s)=noun subj. n(o)=noun obj]
When the adjective comes after the verb and after the object, it is called a complement,
a subjective complement or an objective complement, depending. Why is this
distinction of before or after worth remembering? Cocktail parties and impressing
your friends with your erudition mainly; however, being able to distinguish between
parts of speech (noun, adjective), and grammatical position and function (subjective
complement, objective complement) is important for being able discern the main
independent clause of a sentence, its constitutive parts, its beginning and end (so
what?), which is in turn important for understanding not only how to build on to that
core, but also for the type of punctuation that is absolutely necessary for that building
to occur.
Notice that grammatical objects and subjective complements crop up with different
types of verbs. Remember your French, avoir and être, to have and to be? There is a
similar kind of thing in English – to start with, at least. Subjective complements
describe the being of a subject. They can be nouns (girl) or adjectives (pretty) and
modify (further, but importantly, describe) the subject. They aren’t objects on their
own, or at least not direct objects, grammatically speaking, in the sentence. Things
that one can have—candy, eyewear, a million dollar bank account and a villa in
Anguilla—are objects, nouns. Things that one can be—stunning, brilliant, Paris
Hilton’s lover (ick)—are subjective complements.
•
Transitive
& Intransitive
Verbs
Complexity: the above doesn’t exhaust the rule. Not every verb, obviously, is
an avoir or an être. “Jane goes,” for instance, in the first sentence. She can
walk, run, give the cop the finger as she drag races in a car she just hot-wired in
the Yorkdale parking lot, and so on.
So, another way that grammarians classify verbs is by calling them transitive or
intransitive. This labeling is used to name how the verb functions in a sentence,
rather than trying to make a pronouncement on the kind of verb or the category of verb
that something is in English. Transitive is a label suggesting that this kind of verb
makes a transition to something else. It makes a transition between the subject and the
object. No surprise, intransitive ones don’t make that transition to the object.
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Transitive: takes an object.
Intransitive: doesn’t. It can take something that simply complements the subject or
just take nothing at all. For example,
Jane fled (intransitive)
Jane fled the scene (transitive).
Hey do presto, the same verb becomes either transitive or intransitive depending on
what else follows in the sentence, i.e., whether there is an object or not.
• Taking a Moment to State the Obvious, but I’ll Need it for Later:
Nouns: Yes, yes, “person, place, or thing,” but they can also be a “class, concept,
quality or even an action.” 1 “The investigation continued,” for instance. “The
investigation proceeded without a hitch.”
Nouns
More importantly, as we keep an eye on grammar, nouns can be singular (box) or plural
(boxes, toys) or collective (government, herd, class), which are plural but function
grammatically as singular—just to make you crazy. But think of it this way: if the
plural thing functions as a unit, then it is collective, but singular. “The family is
dysfunctional.” “The herd was lost.” “The whole battalion went AWOL.”
(Yes, British English is different here, but pay it no mind. I’m not trying to be a
rampant North Americanist. It is just that British English is no longer the adopted
international standard. There are only 60 million of them and 332 million North
Americans. We ruuuule, man. Hoo hoo! ☺
Pronouns
Pronouns function grammatically in the same way as nouns, subject or object.
I, you, he, she, it, we, they versus me, you, him, her, it, us, them.
Possessive
Adjectives
&
Pronouns
Possessive pronouns are pronouns in the possessive or genitive case. They fall into
two types.
Possessive Adjectives:
My
your his
her
its
our
their
Her gun shot through his leg and into their shoulders. They were playing Twister.
Possessive Pronouns
Mine yours his
1
hers
its
ours
theirs
Formal definitions of grammatical terms, when footnoted, are cited or paraphrased from William E.
Messenger and Jan De Bruyn, The Canadian Writer’s Handbook, Second Edition, (Scarborough, ON: PrenticeHall Canada, 1986), in this case, page 33.
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The leg shot was mine; the shoulder, yours.
• And would you please notice that none of these has an apostrophe!
• While you are at it, notice that “none” (no one) is a singular noun, so the verb
is singular! Same deal with “each,” “one,” “any” (short for “any(one).”
Nouns can be subjects or objects:
The ball sat on the ledge.
n
n
Pronouns can be subjects or indirect objects:
He gave me the test scores.
pn
Verbs
pn
n
Verbs: Another name for the verbs when it appears in sentences is “predicate.” Verbs
predicate (make something happen or bring something and another thing necessarily
together). Verbs also have tenses, which have interesting technical names you
probably won’t remember:
Simple Present
Simple Past
Simple Future
Jane drives quickly
Jane drove quickly
Jane will drive quickly tomorrow
Jane is going to drive quickly
soon
Present Progressive
Past Progressive
Future Progressive
Jane is driving now
Jane was driving
yesterday
Present Perfect
Past Perfect
Future Perfect
Jane has driven
Jane had driven
Jane will have driven
Jane is going to have driven
Present Perfect
Progressive
Past Perfect
Progressive
Jane has been driving
Jane had been driving
Jane will be driving tomorrow
Jane is going to be driving
tomorrow
Future Perfect Progressive
Jane will have been driving
Jane is going to have been
driving
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Perhaps the following kind of horribly cheap logic and grouping works well enough:
simple, complex, and mess.
Why would I ever say it this way? Because most of you can conjugate verbs in all
these tenses without knowing the names. Fine. Knowing that they are in the present,
past or future is the first important thing; however, recognizing that verbs can have
one, two, or a few parts to them is probably the more important thing for figuring out
punctuation and more complex structures, such as subordination, verb phrases, etc.
(which we’ll get to, below). For now, and at risk of being an English prof who is
teaching you totally incorrect but potentially useful things …
Present:
Past:
Future:
Conditional:
simple (I drive).
Complex (I am driving)
simple (I went).
Complex (I had gone).
Mess (She had to have gone)
simple (I will).
Complex (I will fly).
Mess (I will have flown [by tomorrow]).
A tense distinguished by the presence of modals or modal auxiliaries, indicating, as the
name suggests, a different mode for each verb. These are the would, could, should
types: I would go, if … I could have gone, but … We might be going later. I can go.
The complex tenses (Jane is driving, for instance), modals (Jane could drive), and the
total messes of something like the future perfect progressive (Jane is going to have
been driving) underscore that verbs can have lots of parts. They have participles and
auxiliaries.
Present Participle: driving, as in I am driving.
Past Participle:
pushed, as in I pushed or I had pushed the car.
What, then, is the difference between the simple past and the past participle? Nothing,
ultimately, but the participle becomes more recognisable when you get into the more
complex and messed up tenses: I had pushed. It had to have been pushed.
Participle
Auxiliary
The participle is the action part of the verb. So what is the other part?
It is the auxiliary.
I am going
s - aux - participle
We had gone
s - aux - participle
It had to have
been
s - aux - infinitive - participle
The three reasons that I am mentioning auxiliaries and participles are these:
1) when looking for s – v structures, whether of independent or dependent clauses, or
when trying to figuring out whether something is a verb phrase or a full clause, don’t
forget to include the auxiliary when searching for the verb;
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2) the auxiliary is part of your clue for figuring out the tense in which you are writing.
And why do you want to figure that out? So that you can keep all the verbs of your
various clauses and phrases of the same sentence and between sentences in the same
tense;
3) the participle on its own, without an auxiliary, can form certain types of phrases.
On the one hand, recognising the participle is one potential clue for recognizing
whether you are looking at a phrase or a clause; and on the other hand, recognising
whether you are looking at a clause or a phrase makes a difference with sentence
structure and punctuation. More on that, below.
Parallelism
A Further Note on Tense: Parallelism
When you expand the basic s – v into a more complex sentence with multiple verbs,
different phrases, etc., you need to make sure that the verbs for a subject stay in the
same tense and same form. This is known as verb parallelism:
Jane puts up her hand, answers the teacher’s question, then gloats as her rivals
scowl.
When you are using a complex verb form, generally the auxiliaries and modals are
mentioned once at the beginning of a series of verbs and thus govern all of them:
We would have been driving to the airport tomorrow, checking our bags, and
flying off to Aruba with our lottery winnings, had the police not tracked us
down and charged us with the robbery of the bank on Main Street.
Participial
Phrases
Participial Phrases:
These occur when a participle is used as an adjective in a sentence and thus
describes a noun:
Suddenly finding herself alone in the Legislature, Jane grabbed the Mace,
[
- participle - thus participial phrase
] [ s -
v
indep cl
which is an object that has to be present for Parliament to convene.
+ dep cl
]
Notice that the participial phrase is in a subordinate position to the main, independent
clause.
Gerunds
FYI: when participles don’t just modify a noun but actually become the noun subject,
then they are called gerunds. Nice, whatever, I know. But the larger point about
participles and gerunds will come later on, when I deal with punctuation and sentence
errors. Enter the famous dangling participle and dangling gerund. But more on that
below, simply grouped under “dangling modifiers.”
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Prepositions
Prepositions:
These are the things that drive learners of English as a second language around the
bend, because the correct selection of prepositions in relation to verbs and nouns
appears to have no logic other than whimsy or, more politely, convention. And,
truthfully, idiomatic usage is the large part of what governs preposition selection.
Prepositions are linking words or structural connectors. Coming after a verb or noun,
they introduce the answer to questions, such as “where?” “which? “what?” “whom?”
For instance,
Jane
s
drove
-
v
to the car wash.
(where?) prep
(which?)
(where?)
The man in the booth looked at Dick with a piercing glance and wondered
s prep
v
prep
prep
conj
v
whether Dick was the boyfriend of Jane or the brother.
correlative conj (cc) v
prep
conj
“In the booth” and “at Dick” are what are called prepositional phrases, of which you
will see more, below, when we deal with phrases v. clauses. The nouns, “booth” and
“Dick,” become the objects of the preposition in the sentence. Notice that “in the
booth” relates to the subject of the sentence, “man.”
When the prepositional phrase modifies a noun, it is termed adjectival. Adjectives
modify nouns.
When the prepositional phrase modifies a verb, it is termed adverbial. The
prepositional phrase “at Dick” is adverbial because it modifies where one “looked.”
List
Of
Common
Prepositions
2
Partial List of Common Prepositions 2
about
above
after
before
behind
below
despite
down
during
inside
into
like
of
off
on
out of
outside
over
since
such as
through
under
underneath
unlike
within
without
Messenger and De Bruyn, 123.
along
beneath
except
near
onto
past
throughout
until
around
beside
for
next to
on top of
regarding
till
up
as
at
between
by
from
in
notwithstanding
opposite
out
regardless of
toward(s) to
upon
with
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•
Notice: prepositions are not only single words. They can be compounds. For
instance, as “in” is a preposition, so “in front of” and “in order to” and “in
relation to” can also be prepositions. I have tended to include the root or
governing preposition in this list, such as “in,” which takes the lion’s share of
combinations, but not all the compounds individually.
•
•
Question: Is it correct or incorrect to end a sentence with a preposition?
Answer: It depends on your anxieties about formality, which people
sometimes dissolve into issues of class, and whether you want to claim more
influence and importance to the Anglo or the Saxon roots of English.
I grew up with a whole passel of folks who would scream across the school cafetorium,
“Barry and I are skipping chemistry and going to Sunshine’s for potato skins. Do you
want to (pronounced: djawanna) come with?” As “being cool,” which was
synonymous with “being one of the gang,” was the seat of all my anxieties (I’m over
it!), I figured that I should emulate such speech, only to be severely reprimanded at
home: “From where do you come, young man, the Shtetl?” (a Shtetl is the Yiddish
name for a village in eastern Europe. No opera, no ballet, no paved roads. Just a lot of
who-knows-what? Hay and mud and various things eschewed in our modern North
American culture of assimilation).
In German, the Saxon root of English, prepositions often do go at the end of a
sentence: “Kommen sie mit?” “Are you coming with?” The “me” or “us” is implied
and the verb is “mitkommen”. In English, and particularly upper-class English, the
pronoun had to be filled in and was in a sense fused to the preposition as a unit: “Are
you coming with us?” “With whom are you going?” “This is the restaurant about
which I was telling you, and these are the potato skins about which people are
raving”—to which one could also add, “and here is 19th-century corset into which I
have laced my speech,” also known as “here is the steel rod which is stuck up my youknow-what.” Tone and formality ultimately guide whether to end or not to end a
sentence with a preposition in your writing.
Adjectives
Expanding the Basic Sentence
Adjectives modify nouns:
Pretty Jane drives. Girlish-by-design Jane drives a pink Barbie-car.
adj -
Adverbs
s
- v
Adverbs modify verbs:
Jane drives quickly.
s
-
v
-
adv
adj
-
s -
v
-
adj
-
o
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Jane floors the Barbie-car and runs the light, while flashing her pearly whites
at the cop who can’t stuff the doughnut into his mouth fast enough to leap
behind the wheel and catch her.
Phrases
These are collections of words that modify nouns and verbs, and otherwise flesh out
the descriptive elements of a sentence. Importantly, however, they are not full
sentences on their own. They don’t ever have a full s – v core. They might contain a
noun, they might contain a verb or verb part, but never a full noun subject and an
appropriate verb in the right form for it together. So, never an s – v; for instance,
Jane drives to the munitions and chemical warfare superstore.
s
-
v - (prepositional phrase, adverbial, telling us “where” she “drives” )
Phrases can go in anywhere, practically, and are important for packing sentences with
information, making them more descriptive and complex. When you are thinking
about building sentences, making them do more work for you, phrases become
something to think about. They are always in the sentence, an integral part of the
sentence. I am stressing that because on the other side of the coin, phrases cannot
stand on their own as sentences because they aren’t sentences. Again, they have no
independent s – v unit that can stand on its own.
Jane floors the Barbie-car and runs the light, while flashing her pearly whites
s - v
-
o
+
v
-
o
[subord’g conj introducing a verb phrase
at the cop who can’t stuff the doughnut into his mouth fast enough to leap
(prep phrase)][ dep cl
(prep phrase
)
behind the wheel and catch her.
(prep phrase
•
•
Clauses
)
] (for now let’s leave this last part of the sentence unmarked).
Notice: “while flashing her pearly whites” contains a verb, a participle, the “–
ing” ending, yet it is still a phrase. Why? Because while it might have some
form of a - v structure, it doesn’t have a subject (s) to go with that - v. It isn’t
a full s – v structure.
Notice: prepositional phrases get littered all over the place. Many of them can
exist in any independent or dependent clause.
If a phrase is a collection of words without a full s – v core, then clauses are collections
of words that have an s – v core. So are clauses sentences? Yes, sure, certainly, and
no ☺. I said that s – v is the most basic sentence. Jane drives. However, the moment
we start to add either phrases or other s – v structures onto this basic unit is the
moment we can no longer call that s – v structure a sentence in its own right, which is
the moment we have to recognize it as a clause. Clauses, therefore, are s – v structures
that are the main core of the sentence, but the sentence is/can be something bigger and
beyond the clause itself.
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Independent
Clause
A clause which can stand on its own and be a sentence if it had to is called an
independent clause:
(indep clause = s – v)
Jane drives
Jane drives the Barbie-car (indep clause = s – v – o )
Jane drives the Barbie-car to the Delta-Sonic Car Wash
(indep clause = s – v – o with phrase [to the Delta-Sonic…])
One can join independent clauses to form more complex sentences:
Jane drives the Barbie-car to the Delta-Sonic Car Wash, which is across the
street from the Parliament Buildings, and there she plots how to take over the
government, while at the same time presenting to the world the cover of a
simple, pretty girl, buffing her ‘better-than-acrylic’ press-on nails, while sitting
in the rich Corinthian leather of her car’s bucket seats. Silly world.
Co-ordinating
Conjunctions
Conjunctions (more properly co-ordinating conjunctions) can be used to join and thus
co-ordinate independent clauses. When they join independent clauses, conjunctions
take a comma before they appear; for instance,
Jane grabbed the .45 Magnum from Dick, pistol whipped him savagely, and she
[ s
-
v
-
adj
- o
-
indirect o, -
v
-
io
- adv
], conj [ s -
tore off down the back path to the garage, while a grin spread across her face.
v - adv (
adv. phrase
)( adv. Phrase )] [ dep cl
s
- v
(
adv. phrase
)].
List of
Conjunctions
List of Conjunctions:
and
but
so
Dependent
Clause
Dependent Clause (sometimes called subordinate clause):
A clause which cannot stand on its own and make perfect sense, even though it has an
s – v structure:
yet
or
nor
for
When the Barbie-car goes through the wash.
s
-
v
That the government was corrupt.
s
Subordinating
Conjunctions
-
v
When you read these examples, you can sense that something is missing. Indeed, the
rest of the thought, the rest of the sentence, is missing. And, you can see that
something has been added—in the above examples, words such as “when” and “that.”
These kinds of words, when attached to clauses, are subordinators or more properly
subordinating conjunctions (see list below). In terms of their grammatical function in
12
sentences in this case, they signal that the ensuing clause is subordinate or dependent
on something else for the clause to make complete sense. What is the subordinate
clause subordinate to? What is the dependent clause dependent upon? An
independent clause. The independent clause can come before or after the dependent
clause. For instance:
When the Barbie-car goes through the wash, Jane will thank the attendant.
[ dep cl
] [ indep cl
]
The security guards ask her what she is doing.
[
indep cl
][
dep cl
]
Jane looked askance at the guard who was barring her way, eyeing her
[ indep cl
] [ dep cl
suggestively, lasciviously, yet entirely typically for a small-minded animal.
]
•
Notice: in this case the dependent clause is bigger and actually more complex
than the independent clause. The dependent clause has two verbs, “was
barring” and “eyeing,” for its subject, “who,” let alone a whack of adverbs and
a concluding prepositional phrase. No matter how complex a clause is
structurally, dependence or independence is determined by the grammatical
status relative to the sentence and its meaning.
Adjectival
Clause
In the example above, this type of dependent clause has a name—a name given for its
function. It is an adjectival clause. Why adjectival? Because “who was barring her
way …” describes, modifies, the noun closest to it, “guard.” What kind of word
provides descriptive material for nouns? An adjective, hence adjectival clause.
Adverbial
Clauses
Not surprisingly, there are also adverbial clauses. Adverbs modify or otherwise add
descriptive material to verbs, so adverbial clauses are dependent clauses that provide
important information relative to the verb of the independent (or main) clause. For
instance,
Jane sneered, because she had hate in her heart for the government.
[ indep cl
[ s - v
Noun
Clause
] [
dep cl
] [subord’r - s - v - o ( phrase
)(
phrase
]
)]
Sometimes the dependent clause is actually part of the independent clause. It can
function, for instance, as the large subject of the sentence. In this case, we would call
the dependent clause a noun clause, because it functions as the noun subject of the
independent s – v structure, otherwise known, in this example, as the main sentence.
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That the government was corrupt was the pervasive subject of Jane’s thoughts.
[[ dep cl which is here a noun clause
]
(
phrase
)]
[[
s
] v
sc
]
[ so this whole thing is the independent clause, which includes a dependent clause as its noun subject ]
As you can see from the examples above, dependent or subordinate clauses are
(almost) always heralded by what are called subordinating conjunctions. This kind of
conjunction joins the dependent clause to the independent clause. Another way of
saying it is that this kind of conjunction subordinates (while thus joining) a, or many,
(dependent) clauses to the main or primary (independent) clause.
List
of
Subordinating
Conjunctions
List of Subordinating Conjunctions 3 :
after
however
that
whenever
where
wherever
till
whereas
until
whether
before
whatever
while
what
than
if
as
because
once
why
when
if only
in case
lest
unless
since
although
though
as though
even though
rather than
ever since
Punctuation
Comma
The answer to the question, “What is a comma?” is defined differently by practically
every grammar book. Some call it a mild separator. It separates words, phrases, and
clauses from each other when a period or full separating punctuation is not
grammatically required. 4 Such books note that a comma makes a reader pause slightly.
Wrong! (Okay, fine, not entirely wrong, but this definition is misleading).
Comma
Why I hate such an explanation: “Give him an inch, and he’ll take an ell,” goes the old
saying. (What is an “ell”? It’s the second cousin of the eel. No, I’m kidding. It is an
old measure of length). Any mention of a comma as a separator leads people to use it
to “separate” practically anything: sentences from each other, so that they end up
making comma splices all over the place; subjects from verbs; every single adjective in
a sentence on which they can set their sights, and so on. Furthermore, when building a
sentence, a task for which commas are absolutely essential, why speak of keeping
things apart, when what is really happening is the bringing of things together? Sure,
relative to the rhythm of reading a sentence, a comma can signify a breath, but that is a
function relative to reading and performing, not to the grammatical and stylistic task of
writing and sentence building.
3
Messenger & De Bruyn, 133.
As appears in Messenger & De Bruyn’s Canadian Writer’s Handbook, 194. Theirs is a useful book, except
for this definition. It is also out of date in terms of how details citation mechanics.
4
14
So, in the spirit of peace, love, and friendship, a comma is a joiner. It brings
grammatical units together to form and otherwise expand a sentence. Similar to
railway or subway cars as they are joined together to make the full train – ka-chunk,
lock – the comma joins dependent and independent clauses to each other, as well as
phrases in certain positions.
The Three Main Uses of the Comma 5 :
1) with a co-ordinating conjunction, this pair (comma and conjunction) joins independent
clauses in a sentence.
Jane smokes and drinks and generally carouses and roughhouses, but Jane
does not accept even a peck on her cheek from a beau prior to the third date.
Main
Uses
of
the
Comma
Dick? Well, Dick can be found in any public washroom, yet that is not to say he
just gives it away for free. He charges.
Notice: Please, if nothing else, notice that the comma requires the conjunction when it
joins two independent clauses. If the conjunction is missing, then a comma splice
ensues:
Dick, we may politely say, is working his way to the top—or is it the bottom?—
as a sex trade worker, Dick is a hooker, we may quite impolitely, if colloquially,
( cs )
say.
Comma
Splice
•
Comma splices are bad, incorrect, and are the mark of extreme grammatical
slovenliness.
2) On its own, a comma is used to bring together, yet distinguish between, three or more
items in a simple series.
Dick is a noble queen, a regal queen, a queen with taste and good breeding.
•
Subtlety: Rule 1 says that the comma and conjunction are used to join
independent clauses. Rule 2 says that commas are used with a series of three or
more. So, notice that in the phrase, “a queen with taste and good breeding,”
there is no comma before the conjunction, even though “and good breeding” is
in the series. Why? Because “taste” and “good breeding” need to stay together
as their own unit. They are related.
Consider the following series:
Jane likes Magnums, Lugers, Colts, and Uzzis. Each handles differently.
Each noun object (each type of gun) in the series is equal and separate.
5
Adapted from Messenger & De Bruyn, 194.
15
You will sometimes see the final item of a list included with a conjunction but without
a comma. Writing it this way is perfectly fine if you want the final two items to be
read as related. For instance,
The various adjectives Jane used to describe her skin were “flawless,” “matte,”
“milk coffee” and “cream”.
Some books say that you never have to include a comma if there is a conjunction
joining the final equal element of a series. I think that this allowance breeds the
destruction of western civilization.
Here, however, is another instance in which no comma represents correct usage:
Dick packs spermicidal lubricant, knee pads, and both smooth and ribbed
condoms in his workbag.
Lubricant, pads, and condoms are all equal, separate, and thus separated; however,
smooth and ribbed shouldn’t be separated because they are simply adjectives, brought
together with a conjunction, for the same noun.
3) A comma sets off parenthetical or interruptive elements, such as introductory words,
phrases, or clauses and nonrestrictive elements or relative clauses. (Isn’t that a
mouthful?!)
Parenthetical or interruptive elements:
That man, Jane thought to herself, needs to be taken out. He is, however, quite
handsome. (parenthetical: dependent clause)
Yesterday, while not the very best day, was sufficiently clear and sunny. The
s
(
parenthetical adj. phrase
) v
sc
sc
[
gender revolutionaries, whose squinting in the sunlight marred the overall
adj
s
[(
noun phrase
) - v
of an adjectival
visual effect, donned their sunglasses.
clause
) - v
-
o
]
Their manifesto, “Touch my Ass and Die, Pig,” was heralded as a contemporary
[
political classic.
appositive: here a title
]
16
At that time, governments were sacrosanct. Now, the situation is different.
(to be honest, here the comma is mainly used to govern the way the reader
will stress the phrasing and thus the sense of what is written. Notice the
parallelism of the comma use, too)
A common version of what falls under the “use a comma with introductory elements”
rule:
Go to the store if you want to. (Simple declarative ordering of words. Imperative verb)
If you want to, go to the store. (Inverted order)
You might also think of it as:
If you want to, then go to the store.
Many were taught that certain pairs of words showing logical relation need a comma in
between; such as, if ..., then; not only …, but also.
The other way to think of it is that the introductory element begins with a
subordinator, which is in this case, “if.” Remember the list of subordinating
conjunctions, above? The subordinator says, grammatically at least, “what follows is
not the main or principle independent clause of the sentence” or, more colloquially,
“this clause is not what the sentence is about. It is about the main subject, which is
coming soon, after the subordinate clause(s) or phrase(s).” Subordinators which
begin a clause usually complete the clause with a comma, unless, of course, the
subordinate clause finishes the sentence. For example,
If Jane wastes her final bullet on this regular guard, then she runs a high risk in
terms of what or who might come around the corner.
Although the S.W.A.T. team was rushing into the building behind the tear gas
[ subordinate or dep cl
lobbed in ahead of them, and even though the building was surrounded by the
]
+
[ subordinate or dep cl
National Guard, who were prepared to fire at will, Jane and her revolutionaries
] [ dep cl modifying “guard”
] [ indep cl and thus the
held fast to their positions, donned their gas masks, loaded their guns and
principle clause of
surface-to-air missiles, and stormed out of their safe-room to wage war.
the sentence
]
17
Restrictive
and
Nonrestrictive
Elements
That Darned Restrictive v. Nonrestrictive Business:
Restrictive simply means that the information has to be included with, usually the
noun, for readers to identify that noun specifically.
Nonrestrictive means that the information used to describe the noun is entirely
interesting but not absolutely essential for readers to figure out the noun about which
the writer is referring.
Restrictive:
Of the four Janes in the police line-up, the one in the Lycra number was the
killer.
Nonrestrictive:
Jane, in a skin-tight Lycra number with slightly cheap-looking sequin appliqué,
was ordered into the police line-up.
Restrictive:
The car that she likes in the lot is decidedly the Barbie-car.
Nonrestrictive:
That Barbie-car, which gets remarkably good gas mileage and has, as I
mentioned, rich Corinthian leather seats, is plentiful in California, but quite
scarce in New York.
Semicolon
The Semicolon.
Look at the semicolon (;). Essentially it tells you what it is and therefore does. On top
is a period, signifying that a semicolon is a full stop. It works like a period, in that it
can separate full sentences. On the bottom is a comma, signifying that a semicolon
also carries the function of a joining element. What should be joined? Sentences that
speak to each other, that have something to do with each other intimately, particularly
where the first sentence holds one element of the idea, and the second holds a
corresponding element.
Jane likes the Magnum; Dick likes the Luger. The Magnum feels good in her
hand; the Luger sits nicely in his.
To get the sense of this relation between sentences, notice that the semicolon takes the
place in this instance of a comma and co-ordinating conjuction, which would yoke the
two ideas, the two independent clauses, into the same sentence:
Jane likes the Magnum, but Dick likes the Luger. The Magnum feels good in
her hand, but the Luger sits nicely in his.
18
Another important separating (.) – joining (,) job of the semicolon manifests itself in
long series of clauses or phrases of what would ultimately be one sentence. Here, the
elements need to be separated to allow for easier, clearer reading. In the first example,
you can see how the clauses and phrases would turn into a train wreck if you only had
joining commas.
Jane knew that storming the Legislature and overtaking the government would
be possible only if she used Dick as a human shield; only if the security guards
and Military Police, clustered in the anteroom and chatting over coffee,
hesitated to draw their firearms; only if the Members of Parliament were as fat
and docile as they seemed on television and would not put up any resistance;
that they would be stunned and shocked, sweating in their expensive suits and
women’s wear designed to look like men’s wear; and only if it was all caught on
camera, so that it would be fed immediately to CP24 to grip the citizens in their
bloody thirst for violence.
In a similar fashion, the semicolon separates equal elements—in lists after a colon, for
instance (see below as well):
Dick had five weapons in his “Be a Revolutionary” kit, which he ordered off the
Net: a Luger; spare bullets; a hand grenade; cigarettes; a half a box of condoms.
Between city, province/state place names:
Dick and Jane were wanted for assault and battery in Brandon, Manitoba;
Prince Rupert, BC; Cheticamp, NS; and Brampton, ON.
Colon
Such a misunderstood mark of punctuation!
The period is a full stop and separator of sentences.
The semicolon separates but joins.
The colon grammatically separates, but it functionally throws the reader into what
follows the colon 6 . For instance,
Colon
Into the television cameras, Jane hissed this message: Victory is mine, mine,
you fools!
The logic of colon usage is the same when you want to introduce a list.
Her demands were written in lipstick on construction paper: 10 million dollars;
a private plane; landing rights in the Turks and Caicos; and the recently facelifted Ernie Eaves as my personal plaything.
6
Adapted from Messenger & De Bruyn, 196.
19
And the same again, when you want to bring in a quotation that can stand
grammatically on its own from a text.
(NB: the quotation is a fake. Professor is lying to you again.)
In the Ladies Home Journal, Marianne Moore wrote eloquently, if oddly, about
the joys of ironing: “It is a godlike task, delegated to women in our domestic
culture; for with the help of bristling but channeled currents of electricity, she
can make the crooked straight” (“Pressing” 32).
•
Notice: in each example, the colon is used only after a syntactically complete
construction, i.e., something that makes full sense on its own, which generally
means that a colon can only come after something that is a grammatical
sentence, which is at very least an independent clause. It cannot be used after a
sentence fragment, which is to say a dependent clause trying to stand on its
own; nor can it come in the middle of an independent clause that isn’t complete
or finished yet. This common error, arising with lists, for instance,
demonstrates the point:
What she wanted was: liberty; happiness; legal title to the Barbie-car; engraved
handcuffs.
El Wrongo! Fix it simply by completing the independent clause.
What she wanted was simple: liberty; happiness … .
Dash
Mal-lined mark #2. (Get it? Maligned. Mis-lined. The dash is a line. Hahahahaha ☺)
Dash
Like a colon, a dash can introduce a list of items; however, whereas a colon says to the
reader, “what follows explains, defines, summarizes or comments on what was just
said,” a dash says to the reader, “what follows will be surprising, a shift, something
unexpected, sometimes something said for effect.” 7
For instance – and please notice the different internal punctuation between a colon and
a dash:
What she wanted was simple: a happy home; a fulfilled life; polite and smart
children.
What she wanted was simple—total world domination, eradication of plaid
from the earth, and pots and pots of caviar. She happened to like caviar. What
can you do?
7
Adapted from Messenger & De Bruyn, 197.
20
This is not a hard and fast rule, but it may be helpful (safe?) to consider a dash as
functioning within the sentence. It may well even bring an independent clause or
clauses crashing into the middle of the main sentence:
To the horrified faces of the Members of Parliament, Dick mounted—and I
mean really mounted—the Governor General’s honourary seat in the House.
In this sense, even though what the dash interjects is still part of the sentence, its effect
is similar to that of your kid brother or sister who never gets the attention s/he desires
and thus demands, “look at me! Look at me!” as s/he tries to upstage everyone else.
•
Mechanics
Note
on the
Dash
Mechanics Note: a hyphen is not a dash. A hyphen is a single, short
horizontal mark, appearing with no spaces between words, to join words into
compound adjectives mainly, and sometimes nouns:
A whoop-ti-do machine.
The jug is four-fifths full.
The Ronco Veg-a-matic was on sale for $29.95.
The in-laws were coming to stay for a week—a week!
•
Notice: in the final example the difference in appearance between the
hyphen and the dash. Another way to show the difference is to use two
hyphens and no spaces to make a dash; for instance,
The in-laws were coming to say for a week—a week!
(This one is my preference with word processing programs, because I find that
depending on the font, spacing justification, and letter kerning, the dash which
includes the spaces on either side can start to look suspiciously like a hyphen. But, to
each his and her own.)
Common Punctuation/Sentence Errors:
Comma
Splice
Comma Splice:
We know this one now. It results from joining two full sentences with a comma
instead of separating them with a period or a semicolon.
After grabbing the Mace of the Legislature, Jane charged onwards, she body(
subordinate adv phrase
) [
indep principle cl
checked a guard and tore off down the centre aisle.
principle clause
]
] [ indep
21
Sentence
Fragment
frag
Sentence Fragment
Just as it says, a sentence fragment is a piece of a sentence standing on its own—or,
more to the point, parading around as if it were a sentence. (You know, the nerve of
some kids these days!) If you think of an independent clause as something that has
reached the age of majority and can live on its own, then dependent clauses are just
that: dependent. They are still adolescents and need to be under the wing of an
independent clause. Phrases? Phrases may as well be infants. They don’t even have
a subject and a full verb for it in the same body.
Dick spotted a few MPs. Running down the hall.
If a phrase cannot stand on its own, then it has to be joined into either the sentence
before it or after it, depending on what makes best sense.
Dick spotted a few MPs who were running down the hall.
Dick spotted a few MPs. Running down the hall, they were, shamelessly.
Here is a fragment that is a dependent (or subordinate) clause:
The world will be a better place. When the revolution comes.
[
s
v
sc
] [
s
v
]
• Remember, even though a dependent or subordinate clause and an
independent clause both have s – v structures, the dependent one is recognizable
by the subordinating conjunction.
The world will be a better place, when the revolution comes.
The world will be a better place. When the revolution comes, we will all be
equal—except for those who are better than the rest. They will be more equal.
Dangling
Modifiers
Dangling Modifiers
The quick and dirty way of having you recognise the majority of dangling modifier
errors is to say this: whenever you see a clause or phrase beginning with an “ing”
ending of a verb (participle), stop. Read along to the end of the clause or phrase,
signified by a comma, and see whether the subject that follows the comma and begins
the new clause can do the action told by the “ing” verb. If that subject cannot perform
that action, or if it doesn’t make sense for it to do so, then the modifier is said to be left
dangling without anything appropriate to modify.
22
Correct:
While rushing down the centre aisle of the Legislature, Dick tripped,
accidentally shooting Jane in the thigh.
Incorrect:
While rushing down the centre aisle of the Legislature, a fold in the carpet
tripped Dick.
The “fold in the carpet,” I expect, cannot rush “down the centre aisle.” In figurative
speech, one might say, “a seam ran down the aisle,” but in the case of the example
sentence, clearly Dick is the one “rushing down the aisle.”
Apostrophe
Apostrophe
As a punctuation mark, the apostrophe does three things:
1) it marks a contraction of a verb with a noun.
2) it marks a contraction of negative into a verb (though inexplicably it contracts the o
vowel of the word “not” instead of the space between the verb and the negative).
Who is going to prison? We’re going to prison. (we are)
They’re going too. (They are)
You’re exempt from the charge, so you aren’t going. (You are …are not)
I’m free, of course, because I am simply the narrator. (I am)
Highly colloquial and generally frowned upon:
That’ll be the day.
(works in the song, but not in your writing. Rhymes with “prattle”).
This’ll be my last time. (sounds suspiciously like “thistle”).
She’s got my pen.
(The apostrophe generally contracts only one letter; therefore,
“she’s” is the contracted form of “she is” and not “she has,” which is
the meaning necessary for this sentence.)
3) it forms the possessive for nouns.
Jane’s fingerprints were found all over the gun, the Mace, and Anne
McClelland’s neckerchief.
The gun’s chamber had been emptied into the woodwork of the House.
It bears repeating that the apostrophe does not form the possessive of personal
pronouns:
I
Mine
you
he
yours his
she
hers
we
ours
they it
theirs its
• So no more of this “it’s” business
when you mean “its”