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Anonymous Posted 7 years ago
Grammar
Are the commas necessary?
In my defense, it was a long, boring movie.
Are both of the commas really necessary here?
Top answer
[1] In my defense, it was a long , boring movie. [2] In my defense, it was a long boring movie . The first comma is preferred, but whether the second is required or not depends on the intended meaning.
- [1] In my defense, it was a long , boring movie.
- [2] In my defense, it was a long boring movie .
- The first comma is preferred, but whether the second is required or not depends on the intended meaning.
- There are two: In [1], with a comma, "movie" is modified by a coordination of adjectives, giving the meaning "a movie that was both boring and long".
- In [2] with no punctuation, there are two layers of modification, called 'stacking': "movie" is first modified by "boring" to give the nominal "boring movie", and this in turn is modified by "long", giving the meaning "a movie that was long relative to the usual length of boring movies".
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1 Answers
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[1] In my defense, it was a long, boring movie.
[2] In my defense, it was a long boring movie.
The first comma is preferred, but whether the second is required or not depends on the intended meaning. There are two:
In [1], with a comma, "movie" is modified by a coordination of adjectives, giving the meaning "a movie that was both boring and long".
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