What is a comma splice?

Question

Is this a comma splice? What makes a sentence a comma splice?

Being left at the altar on her wedding day, Pamela became furious.

score 10 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 15 '20 at 07:40

There was just a post today on Language Log about constructions like this, known as absolutives. In it, Mark Liberman quotes from the Cambridge Grammar of the English Language:

pages 1265-6 of CGEL, where the followed two examples are given:

His hands gripping the door, he let out a volley of curses.
This done, she walked off without another word.

... The [italicized] non-finites are supplements with the main clause as anchor. [The examples shown] contain a subject, and belong to what is known as the absolute construction, one which is subordinate in form but with no syntactic link to the main clause. […]

In [none of these examples] is there any explicit indication of the semantic relation between the supplement and the anchor. This has to be inferred from the content of the clauses and/or the context.

A comma splice, on the other hand, is when two sentences are connected with a comma instead of a period.

score 8 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 09 '11 at 03:33

8

I would say no, because "Being left at the altar on her wedding day" isn't an independent clause.

It would be considered a comma splice if you phrased it this way:

Pamela was left at the altar on her wedding day, she was furious.

edited Apr 09 '11 at 03:33

Jimi Oke

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answered Aug 18 '10 at 23:18

JohnFx

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apaderno · Answer 3 · 2017-11-08T08:47:47.893

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Being left at the altar on her wedding day, Pamela became furious.

The sentence above starts with a participial phrase; in that case, it's correct to use the comma (which is the only way to separate phrases, in cases such as these).

A comma splice would occur in a sentence like the following.

The Taylors won a new swimming pool, however, no one in the family knew how to swim.

Instead of the comma before however, there should be a semicolon or a period.

The Taylors won a new swimming pool; however, no one in the family knew how to swim.

edited Nov 08 '17 at 08:47

answered Aug 19 '10 at 08:05

apaderno

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Replace the "however," with "but" and you can keep the comma. – Marthaª Nov 05 '10 at 15:43
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@Martha - in that case you'd need to lose the second comma; "x, but, y" is horrifying. And incorrect. – MT_Head Jun 05 '11 at 22:31
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I feel like the correct sentence would also include the word swim** and not the non-word swin**. ;) – Ian MacDonald Mar 03 '15 at 22:27
Why would you use a semi-colon rather than a period? – kojow7 May 05 '17 at 06:39
@kojow7 It is a matter of preferences. You can use either one or the other. – apaderno May 05 '17 at 09:01

What is a comma splice?

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