If you’re one of those people whose posts have been edited by others, you can sometimes get called out for using a comma, which is technically called a period or semicolon. It’s called a hyphen (or comma error, comma error, comma erroror don’t do it with a comma). (We made the last one, sorry.) And it’s pretty popular. In fact, there is an example of one of the parentheses we just used; if we wanted to avoid the comma, we would say, “We made that last one. Sorry.”
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Comma concatenation is joining two independent clauses with a comma, for example, “The hat doesn’t fit, it’s too tight.” Although considered a mistake in formal writing, it can be done successfully in formal writing.
what is it exactly? Comma concatenation is joining two independent clauses with nothing but commas. (Quick review: an independent clause is a part of a sentence that has its own subject and verb and can be used by itself as a simple sentence but is instead part of a larger sentence.) The comma is a subspecies of the conjunctive sentence; A run-on sentence is when two independent clauses are joined together without proper conjunctions or punctuation.
To avoid a comma splice, you can do one of several things. You can 1) make each clause its own sentence, 2) you can join the clauses with semicolons instead of commas, or 3) or you can replace commas with conjunctions like And, But, becauseor in spite of. If the second clause is long, you can also keep a comma before the conjunction.)
Examples of each solution
With a comma: Hat doesn’t fit, too tight.
Do not have:
- Hat does not fit. It’s too tight.
- Hat does not fit; it’s too tight.
- The hat doesn’t fit because it’s too tight. (longer) The hat didn’t fit and it was so tight it gave me a headache when I put it on.
The hyphen is not a new phenomenon. In fact, they seem to be survivors of an older, looser form of punctuation. And “older” means really old:
As for the ex, I don’t know what to do with him, he’s so fierce that I don’t dare go down the pit with him…. — Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe1719
Why, sure Betty, you’re mesmerized, This ice cream burned too. — Jonathan Swift, polite dialogue1738
The job in New Jersey was accepted, I made a bronze stamping machine for it.… — Benjamin Franklin, Memoir1771
No one corrected these writers in their day; In fact, there is nothing to fix. The 18th century punctuation didn’t follow the conventions we practice today. But even as standards of punctuation evolved in the 19th century into the ones we are familiar with, the older, looser punctuation continued to be used in personal letters by famous writer:
I found your white gloves folded in my clean sleeping cap…. — Jane Austen, letter, August 24, 1805
Ms. M. is not necessarily an author, actually I don’t think publishing is reputable for men or women…. – Lord Byron, letter, 1st May 1812
Well, I’m not going to talk about myself, that’s not a sane topic. — Lewis Carroll, letter, July 29(?) July 1885
It seems most likely that the origin of the hyphen was the use of commas to represent a relatively brief pause in speech (18th-century prose is closer to actual speech than it often appears today, and letters usually approximate words. ). Further evidence for this hypothesis can be found in modern transcriptions of speech. In the next example, the speech is fictitious:
“This is Tyler,” she said. “He grew up in Tennessee, he had a horse named Custard—”— Gillian Flynn, Lost Girl2012
Two independent clauses about Tyler are read as if they were spoken so quickly that it seems difficult to put any punctuation other than commas. The same used comma appears in the transcription of actual speech:
“Toxic anger builds up, confusion builds up…” — Anne Rice, night streetAugust 11, 2010
Letters and words (both fictional and transliterated) represent language at the less formal end of the spectrum, and that’s where the associative comma is most common. It is also very common in poetry and is also found in fiction:
On the white beach, coral and broken bones, a group of children are walking. They must be swimming, they are still wet and sparkling. — Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake2003
Language writer Stan Carey has an exhaustive list of examples of concatenations in action, some of which work better than others.
When writing assignments, commas are often considered an error. However, in informal writing, the hyphen can be successfully accomplished with the right kind of clause: not too long and preferably relevant. Adventurous writers pull it out often.
Categories: Usage Notes
Source: vothisaucamau.edu.vn
