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Goronsky Posted 12 years ago
Grammar

Semicolons / Commas / Yada Yada Yada

Yo! It's been a while since Goronsky had a question. Here goes....

My daughter Pamela, my son Gary, and my wife Gertrude will be at the picnic. (I have one daughter, one son, and [obviously] one wife.)

Or should it technically be this eyesore, which I believe is correct to show the restrictive/nonrestrictive thing:

My daughter, Pamela; my son, Gary; and my wife, Gertrude, will be at the picnic. (I got a migraine looking at this sentence! Ugh! But it may be correct! ... Oh yeah, Bub!)

TY
  

Top answer

The first version is fine. The second one is, as you say, an eyesore.

— GPY

  • The first version is fine.
  • The second one is, as you say, an eyesore.
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5 Answers
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The first version is fine. The second one is, as you say, an eyesore.
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But aren't we breaking rules of punctuation by not using the commas around each name to show that there's only one of each person?
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So the names of each person are restrictive in their own right? Hence we don't need the commas and semicolons?
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Reason I ask is, there's a dispute at work (and I'm seldom wrong).
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