Oxford Comma Or Not?

[ToraToraTora]

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/27/brexit-50p-coin-boycott-philip-pullman-oxford-comma
I say it doesn't need one.

[lankeela]

I would say if it had a comma after prosperity it would not need the 'and'.

[lankeela]

I have an ongoing battle with some committee members of my dog club - we are Great Yarmouth, Gorleston & District Canine Society but some insist on leaving the comma out - my argument is that there is no such place as Great Yarmouth Gorleston. Its the thin end of the wedge, first the apostrophe and now the comma!

[Prudie]

I never learned about this Oxford comma thing but I did learn not to put a comma before 'and' so will stick with that.

[jourdain2]

The commas are fine either way - they just change the way of saying the phrase. That is probably the reason that there is no full stop. It is a phrase, not a sentence - no verb. More of a slogan really.

So far as I have seen, you are all correct about the full stop and brackets. Bit of a storm in a teacup - but quite fun. :)

[sanmac]

Jourdain2 mentioned slogans not necessarily requiring a full-stop. Here are some examples: https://www.google.com/search?q=british+ww2+slogans&client=firefox-b-d&tbm=isch&;source=iu&;ictx=1&fir=RrUPYLYvIc7fNM%253A%252CYl7n-RN9CRyexM%252C_&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kRHeOsR7b6TQ2tjhBff3nBzSZdYGA&sa=X&;ved=2ahUKEwizn-yB16bnAhVFmVkKHf6XDjcQ9QEwA3oECAoQHA#imgrc=aaqzJrnV-IGa2M:&vet=1

[Gromit]

My background is in printing, and we used the Oxford comma in lists. But it a style rather than a rule, so it is wrong to amend anyone’s writing that doesn’t have one.

I would also go with the punctuation going outside the bracket (at the end of a sentence).

[Peter Pedant]

// Sentence functions well with or without.//
yeah but no but - the meaning changes

I wd prefer for example - there is no doubt at all that Brexit has spawned the coronavirusm, end of!

as a grammatical ,clear and straighforward sentence and a label for a 50p coin

( although - "it's a tiddler and getting smaller!" remains my fave]

and or but or even however
a pointy headed intellectual wrote in the Times today
"The Oxford comma can reduce precision (writes Colin Watts emeritus professor of English)
compare "I saw Tom, Dick and Harry swimming" with " I saw Tom, Dick, and Harry swimming". The first suggest that I saw Tom, Dick and Harry , and all were swimming. The latter version incorrectly suggests that I saw Tom and Dick. I also saw Harry who was swimming.

(any grammar and syntax mistakes are mine)

[Mamyalynne]

Once more you pull me up Peter, not doing very well am I?

[Khandro]

It's a fine piece of calligraphy which fits perfectly within the frame edge of the coin, look at it again & see how disruptive a tadpole hanging behind the y would be. Do you thing the writer of the script & the sculptor who made the model wasn't aware of it? Calligraphy is about aesthetics.
This is simply another piece of nonsense by the remoaners.

[Ellipsis]

> Oxford Comma Or Not?

A) Peace, prosperity and friendship with all nations
B) Peace, prosperity, and friendship with all nations

A and B may mean slightly different things.

A is what's on the coin. If the writer meant B then they should have put B, for clarity.

The problem with A is that it implies:

1) Peace with all nations
2) Prosperity with all nations
3) Friendship with all nations

Pullman is suggesting that 1 and 2 above are not what was meant. They're not great English, for a start.

[Gromit]

// Do you thing the writer of the script & the sculptor who made the model wasn't aware of it? Calligraphy is about aesthetics. //

The design was produced by a Graphic Designer using Computer Software, Namely Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop.

https://youtu.be/Rq71bYMUOpI

[Khandro]

Gromit "Software" doesn't do calligraphy independently.

[Gromit]

Khandro

// Gromit "Software" doesn't do calligraphy independently. //

You couldn’t be more wrong.

[Khandro]

Gromit; How does it do it independently, independently of what?

[Arrods]

As was stated in Jokes recently, 'My three favourite things are eating my family and not using commas'.

[fiction-factory]

Regarding brackets, if part of a sentence is bracketed the rule is that the full stop goes outside the bracket (just like this one does).
(On the other hand, if a whole sentence is bracketed like this, the rule is that the full stop is also inside the brackets.)
Things like this used to bother me but as some linguists have pointed out, many great writers regularly broke the 'rules' concerning grammar and punctuation, and the way things are going with text/twitter speak, I think there will be huge changes to what is accepted in the next 20 years.