Psyching out Commas: Syntactic and Semantic Relations

Abstract

SOMEHOW WE TEND to expect artists to be able to explain their performances. To some extent they can, of course, but often what they say is misleading. In the art of writing, for example, I am quite willing to cite Jacques Barzun as an extremely skilled performer. And yet Barzun and the late Wilson Follett (in Modern American Usage, 1966) have made some curious statements about logic, pauses, and commas. Their remarks appear to indicate that these skilled performers, these beneficiaries and exponents of a rich tradition in English prose, seem also to be victims of some myths embedded in that tradition. What I would like to do here, first, is present what Barzun says about the comma; second, present a basic principle of punctuation derived from Chomsky's work on the sound patterns of English; and, lastly, show how two principles of comma usage contribute to the rhythm and grace we admire in the prose of writers like Barzun, Walker Gibson, Paul Roberts, James Sledd, and, on the Pop or Mod scene, Tom Wolfe and Larry L. King. Here are Barzun and Follett on the