--- title: A comma before the final "and" in a list is called the Oxford comma;… — Commas: lists, clauses and clarity · tree and pragmatics description: A comma before the final "and" in a list is called the Oxford comma; most British schools leave it out, but it is not wrong and it can stop confusion. Who acts: most British schools, comma. A sentence of the lesson «Commas: lists, clauses and clarity» of the english course of Mova's primary school w --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/33-commas-lists-clauses-and-clarity/6/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/) / [Commas: lists, clauses and clarity](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/33-commas-lists-clauses-and-clarity/) / 6 # Commas: lists, clauses and clarity, sentence 6 A comma before the final "and" in a list is called the Oxford comma; most British schools leave it out, but it is not wrong and it can stop confusion. **Who acts:** most British schools, comma · **What happens:** call, leave out, not be, stop · **To what, where:** comma, list, confusion · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of the lesson «Commas: lists, clauses and clarity» of the english course of Mova's primary school. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (most British schools, comma), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:english:033-commas-lists-clauses-and-clarity.lesson:6 # text = A comma before the final "and" in a list is called the Oxford comma; most British schools leave it out, but it is not wrong and it can stop confusion. # source = school lesson (ours) # course = english # lesson = 033-commas-lists-clauses-and-clarity.lesson # annotation = Mova annot: Rust (en) → Haiku 5.5 (medium, Batches API) patches; gates UD 2.18; agreed by treeagree rules (Stanza, Trankit, spaCy trf): R1-cc-next ×1, R6-punct-agree ×1, R7-rel-agree ×2, R8-pos-agree ×1 1 A a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 2 det _ _ 2 comma comma NOUN NN Number=Sing 13 nsubj:pass _ _ 3 before before ADP IN _ 5 case _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=5:mark|HaikuPos=SCONJ:IN:_ 4 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 5 det _ _ 5 final final ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 2 nmod _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=2:amod 6 " " PUNCT `` _ 13 punct _ _ 7 and and CCONJ CC _ 13 cc _ _ 8 " " PUNCT '' _ 7 punct _ Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=13:punct|HaikuPos=PUNCT:``:_ 9 in in ADP IN _ 11 case _ _ 10 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 11 det _ _ 11 list list NOUN NN Number=Sing 13 obl _ _ 12 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 13 aux:pass _ _ 13 called call VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 0 root _ _ 14 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 16 det _ _ 15 Oxford Oxford PROPN NNP Number=Sing 16 compound _ _ 16 comma comma NOUN NN Number=Sing 13 xcomp _ _ 17 ; ; PUNCT : _ 13 punct _ _ 18 most most ADJ JJS Degree=Sup 20 amod _ _ 19 British British ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 20 amod _ _ 20 schools school NOUN NNS Number=Plur 21 nsubj _ _ 21 leave leave VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 13 parataxis _ Agree=R8-pos-agree|Haiku=13:parataxis|HaikuPos=VERB:VB:VerbForm=Inf 22 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 21 obj _ _ 23 out out ADP RP _ 21 compound:prt _ _ 24 , , PUNCT , _ 29 punct _ _ 25 but but CCONJ CC _ 29 cc _ _ 26 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 29 nsubj _ _ 27 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 29 cop _ _ 28 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 29 advmod _ _ 29 wrong wrong ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 21 conj _ _ 30 and and CCONJ CC _ 33 cc _ Agree=R1-cc-next|Haiku=29:cc 31 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 33 nsubj _ _ 32 can can AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 33 aux _ _ 33 stop stop VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 29 conj _ _ 34 confusion confusion NOUN NN Number=Sing 33 obj _ _ 35 . . PUNCT . _ 13 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} No stored speech act for this sentence. | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **call** *speech: assert* | present · passive | | a comma before the final | | a list | | | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient | | 2 | **leave out** | present | most British schools | comma | | | | | vn neglect-75.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme | | 3 | **not** **is** | present | comma | | | | | wrong *property* | tree rules | | 4 | **stop** | can | comma | confusion | | | | | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Subeventuality confusion=Eventuality | One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree. **Licence: [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)**, as the whole of Mova corpus 0.4, of which this treebank (the agreed school, `mova-school-agreed-en.conllu`) is part. The lessons were written for Mova's primary school. Sentence `school:english:033-commas-lists-clauses-and-clarity.lesson:6`. **The tree:** Mova annot: Rust (en) → Haiku 5.5 (medium, Batches API) patches; gates UD 2.18; agreed by treeagree rules (Stanza, Trankit, spaCy trf): R1-cc-next ×1, R6-punct-agree ×1, R7-rel-agree ×2, R8-pos-agree ×1. **The frames** are read from the tree by Mova's frames reader (`prag`) when this page is built, the lesson read in order, so a pronoun may be resolved from an earlier sentence. See the [release 0.4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/releases/0.4/). - ← previous: [Commas: lists, clauses and clarity, 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/33-commas-lists-clauses-and-clarity/5/) - next →: [Commas: lists, clauses and clarity, 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/33-commas-lists-clauses-and-clarity/7/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/33-commas-lists-clauses-and-clarity/)