Comma splice
Cameron won (the first general election the Tories have won outright since 1992), followed through on his pledge to hold a referendum on staying in the European Union, promised not to resign if he lost, lost and then resigned as chaos ensued.
(The Guardian.)
There are seven independent clauses in the sentence above, all but two in unlinked coordination.
My question is: why are those independent clauses separated by commas in that sentence? Shouldn't they be separated by colons to avoid a comma splice?
Top answer
A series of three or more lexical units of any type can be separated by commas. There is a conjunction before the last unit. In this case, the lexical unit type is a predicate to the single subject, Cameron.
- A series of three or more lexical units of any type can be separated by commas.
- There is a conjunction before the last unit.
- In this case, the lexical unit type is a predicate to the single subject, Cameron.
- There are five of these in the sentence, and there is the conjunction "and" between the last two.
- There is a comma after the first, second and third.
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A series of three or more lexical units of any type can be separated by commas. There is a conjunction before the last unit.
In this case, the lexical unit type is a predicate to the single subject, Cameron. There are five of these in the sentence, and there is the conjunction "and" between the last two. There is a comma after the first, second and third. Here they are (parenthetical
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