Posted by Dave Thewlis on December 19, 2003 at 03:55:26 from 148.78.245.13 user dthewlis.
In Reply to: Oxford Comma posted by Mike Field on December 19, 2003 at 02:34:05:
To hearken back to a previous posting and thread or several, the comma after "Shoots" in "Eats, Shoots(,) and Leaves" is yet another Atlantic difference. In American punctuation it would be omitted, whereas (as I understand it) in English punctuation it would be inserted. Generally speaking correct written American English (yes, there is such a thing) omits commas that would be present in the same sentence in English English: the rule guding the rule seems to be to omit commas when the meaning of the sentence is not affected.
Robert, my general response to the statement "You know what I mean" is to assert that not only do I not know, it is obvious that the speaker doesn't know either, as the phrase seems only to be used when the speaker doesn't actually know how to say what he or she wants to convey.