At 09:11 AM 6/3/2008, it was written:
Ahem ....



One might equally say :
Shame on you! It's not called the "Harvard comma" for nothing...

The Wikipedia article is entitled Serial Comma and states it's also
known as Oxford Comma or Harvard Comma.
The name used is perhaps being determined by which side of the Atlantic
the speaker is not on.....
(or associated prejudices)

Unhelpfully (and markedly off-topic),
Richard.

The text is a debate about comma usage in English prose.



The subtext is some playful banter between myself, David Carlisle, 
and Michael Kay, who have been writing to one another on this list 
for going on ten years now.



They know (as many list readers may not) that they are British and I 
am American, but also that I have read more than my share of British 
prose, having received an advanced degree in the subject (albeit from 
an American university). Accordingly, while I may sometimes be guilty 
of defending and even using the Oxford/Harvard comma, this is 
probably not due to my nationality. It turns up in British prose not 
infrequently, especially before the 20th century; I probably get it 
from Carlyle and Ruskin as much as from Emerson. If we were really 
interested in the topic (as opposed to busy pulling each other's 
chains), I might have pointed this out to David, who first called it 
a trans-atlantic peversion (whatever he might mean by that). "An 
archaic usage more commonly retained in America" would be a more 
accurate description.



We all know (although, as an American, I hesitate to speak for my 
British colleagues) that the thread is way off topic, and has 
undoubtedly gone on too long.



Cheers,
Wendell





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