Why Is the Oxford Comma Called the Oxford Comma? – LifeSavvy

In the event you didn’t know concerning the Oxford comma earlier than the band Vampire Weekend arrived on the music scene within the mid-2000s, you in all probability did afterward; their third single was centered across the hotly debated piece of punctuation. However have you ever ever questioned why the Oxford comma is called the Oxford comma within the first place?

The reality, it seems, is sort of a bit extra complicated than you may anticipate. Though it’s broadly accepted nowadays that the time period “Oxford comma” does, the truth is, confer with the truth that this sort of comma is well-known for its inclusion within the Oxford University Press house style, the precise historical past of the time period is way hazier.

What’s extra, the Oxford comma itself existed lengthy earlier than the Oxford College Press home model got here alongside—even when it didn’t go by that title till not too long ago. Right here’s all the things you could find out about this divisive piece of punctuation.

What Is an Oxford Comma, Actually?

The time period “Oxford comma” is simply one other method to confer with a specific sort of comma identified extra broadly as the serial comma. The serial comma is used when itemizing three or extra issues in a collection; particularly, it’s the comma that seems instantly after the second-to-last merchandise within the record and earlier than the coordinating conjunction that leads into the ultimate merchandise.

For instance, within the following sentence:

“Filbert’s unfold of tea, jam, and spaghetti marinara was maybe an unorthodox alternative for breakfast, however he loved all of it the identical.”

The comma between “jam” and the conjunction “and” is a serial comma.

For what it’s value, Grammarly sums up the definition of the serial comma a bit extra succinctly, calling it merely, “the last comma in a list of three or extra issues”; nevertheless, as many different definitions level out, the small print do matter. The position between the penultimate record merchandise and the coordinating conjunction is particular to the serial comma. If there’s no coordinating conjunction, then the comma that seems after that second-to-last merchandise isn’t a serial comma. Observe additionally that serial commas solely seem in lists of three or extra objects; in case you’re solely itemizing two objects, no commas are used.

There’s proof of the serial comma’s use centuries in the past; for instance, it may be discovered within the first folio of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which was printed in 1623. The stage instructions on the high of Act I, scene ii—that’s, the scene wherein the “impolite mechanicals” are launched—state, “Enter Quince the Carpenter, Cosy the Ioyner, Bottome the Weauer, Flute the bellowes-mender, Snout the Tinker, and Starueling the Taylor.” On this sentence, the comma following “Snout the Tinker” is a serial comma.

In fact, this prompts the important query: If the serial comma has been round for thus lengthy, why is it so regularly known as the Oxford comma at present? The brief reply is that the serial comma is used within the Oxford College Press’ home model—however after all, there’s much more to it than simply that.

What Is The Oxford Comma’s Namesake

The Oxford College Press has lengthy been identified for its stringent model guidelines; certainly, it’s been thought-about authoritative on this regard for over a century. The principles for the press’ model have been first codified in Hart’s Guidelines for Compositors and Readers on the College Press, Oxford—the style guide Horace Hart assembled for inside use and circulated across the press beginning round 1893.

Hart’s Guidelines was later printed as a reference ebook for most people in 1904—and though it doesn’t refer particularly to the serial or Oxford comma, it does include several examples of appropriate comma utilization that make the most of the serial comma. As an illustration, the sentence “Peter was a clever, holy, and energetic man” is among the many first listed within the part on commas.

Hart’s Guidelines remains to be in print at present and remains to be utilized by the Oxford College Press as a mode useful resource for its writers and editors—though the press does observe that its personal Instructions for Authors  “take[s] precedence” every time there are any deviations between these Directions and the present version of Hart’s Guidelines.

The Directions for Authors, which can be found on-line, start the part on Oxford College Press’ (OUP) home model with the “Serial or Oxford comma.” This comma is, notes the information, “an indicator of OUP home model and should be utilized in each British and US model.” Its utilization is described as follows: “In an inventory of three or extra objects, insert a comma earlier than the ‘and’ or ‘or.’”

In the meantime, the present version of Hart’s Guidelines, titled New Hart’s Rules: The Handbook of Style for Writers and Editors, notably consists of this tidbit concerning the serial comma:

“Such a comma is called a serial comma. For a century it has been part of Oxford College Press model to retain or impose this final comma constantly, to the extent that the conference has additionally come to be known as the Oxford comma.”

Lately, the OUP is nearly inseparable from the comma that bears its title.

The Plot Thickens

However the plot thickens right here as nicely: In Peter H. Sutcliffe’s 1978 ebook The Oxford University Press: An Informal History, the “invention” of the Oxford comma is attributed to not Hart’s Guidelines and even to the Oxford College Press itself. As an alternative, it’s attributed to indexer Frederick Howard Collins.

Collins’ Author’s and Printer’s Dictionary, which was initially printed underneath the title Creator & Printer: A Information for Authors, Editors, Printers, Correctors of the Press Compositors, and Typists in 1905, was a solution to some points Collins had with Hart’s Guidelines: They have been, wrote Collins within the preface to the second version (which was additionally printed in 1905), “not altogether in accordance with the apply of lots of our greatest printers, and, being meant for compositors and readers solely, was not sufficiently full for authors.”

The Creator’s and Printer’s Dictionary has included a subsection for the entry on “and” for the reason that very starting which discusses “, and”—that’s, the serial comma (Keep in mind, serial commas should seem earlier than a coordinating conjunction, equivalent to “and.”). On this subsection, Collins factors to Herbert Spencer as a definitive supply on the serial comma, quoting a letter Spencer wrote at size:

“Whether or not to write down ‘black, white, and inexperienced,’ with the comma after white, or to go away out the comma and write ‘black, white and inexperienced’—I very positively resolve in favour [sic] of the primary. To me the comma is of worth as marking out the part components of a thought, and the place any set of parts of a thought are of equal worth, they need to be punctuated in printing and in speech equally. Evidently subsequently on this case, inasmuch as when enumerating these colors [sic] black, white, and inexperienced, the white is simply as a lot to be emphasised as the opposite two, it wants the pause after it simply as a lot because the black does.”

Spencer’s letter makes what appears to be the primary overt argument in favor of the serial comma laid down in any grammatical or model information up till that time—together with Hart’s Guidelines. It’s maybe for that cause that Sutcliffe attributes the Creator’s and Printer’s Dictionary with the “invention” of this sort of comma, regardless of proof of its utilization in print a number of hundred years beforehand.

For what it’s value, the Oxford English Dictionary itself at the moment lists Sutcliffe’s ebook because the first recorded instance of the phrase “Oxford comma.” The context throughout the ebook itself appears to suggest that the time period was already identified at that time—which, as Jasso Lamberg pointed out at his web site Comdesres in 2015, is a little bit bizarre (Wrote Lamberg, “To not criticize the OED, nevertheless it appears a bit unbelievable that the primary ever utilization of the time period in print can be so late. Particularly because the textual content appears to confer with the time period as one thing generally identified.”)—however, alas, that’s the place the written path of the phrase itself appears to go chilly.

Ought to You Use the Oxford Comma?

Though many different model guides past the Oxford College Press’ home model, equivalent to Chicago Style and APA Style, stipulate using the Oxford comma, others, such because the AP Style guide utilized in journalism and reporting, don’t. Moreover, many grammarians really feel fairly strongly about whether or not or not the Oxford comma is certainly appropriate—and are prepared to defend that place on public boards fairly fiercely. So: What provides?

Apparently, the arguments each for and towards using the Oxford comma often revolve round ambiguity. Those that argue for using the serial comma observe that omitting it will possibly typically create ambiguity in a sentence—and frequent ambiguity that may render the sentence absurd at that.

A regularly cited instance includes a (in all probability apocryphal) ebook dedication, which, when written with out an Oxford comma, reads, “To my parents, Ayn Rand and God”—the implication being that the author’s mother and father are Ayn Rand and God. Nonetheless, inserting an Oxford comma after “Ayn Rand” and earlier than the conjunction “and” resolves the anomaly: When written as such, it reads, “To my mother and father, Ayn Rand, and God,” making it a lot clearer that the mother and father, Ayn Rand, and God are all separate entities.

Nonetheless, as Gus Lubin identified at Enterprise Insider in 2013, a minor change to the ebook dedication instance exhibits how the Oxford comma can create ambiguity as nicely. If as a substitute of “To my mother and father, Ayn Rand, and God,” the dedication reads “To my mom, Ayn Rand, and God,” it’s unclear whether or not the mom and Ayn Rand are separate entities, or whether or not Ayn Rand is an appositive referring to the mother—that’s, that the mom is Ayn Rand. On this case, the anomaly is resolved with the removing of the Oxford comma: “To my mom, Ayn Rand and God.”

Lately, whether or not or not you employ the Oxford comma is as a lot about private choice as it’s about whether or not you’re writing for a specific viewers. Find it irresistible or hate it, you’ll at all times have to consider it. Select correctly—and in case you get caught on whether or not or to not use it, you possibly can at all times hum this song to assist your self out.