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Walk fold Posted 9 years ago
Grammar
Vocative commas
A friend of mine thinks that repetition displaces a comma, for example...
Baby steps John, baby steps.
I argue it should be...
Baby steps, John, baby steps.
Grammar really isn't my strongest subject so someone else deal with this please.
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2 Answers
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"Baby steps John, baby steps" is, as you suspect, wrong.
The function of commas is to define different parts of a sentence.
A single comma after "John" creates the nonsensical phrase "Baby steps John," where "baby" is the subject and John is the object.
However, as we know, "Baby steps" is actually a(n abbreviated) command, and "John" is is the vocative case. To grammatically
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