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Recently, I have written a sentence which had following structure:

Both, A and B, are ...

I have been told that commas are stylistically wrong in such case. However, I searched this forum and found following

"A and B both are" vs. "A and B are both" vs. "Both A and B are" vs. "Both of A and B are"?

where user named Kris has similar example and says that

Both A and B are very good. --> A and B is parenthetical, = "Both, A and B, are very good."

I feel that this is probably the best way to use commas. However, are there any actual rules in American and English regarding this and if so could you please provide any credible paper sources which I can use in the argument?

Community
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Danial
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1 Answers1

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There are no "actual rules" in the sense you mean. Punctuation is a matter of style. Both, and in your examples together form a correlative conjunction like either, or and neither, nor. When they link a compound phrase (here a compound subject), style manuals like The Chicago Manual of Style recommend that the two components not be separated by commas. I think we can infer that as well the two parts of the conjunction not be separated by punctuation since the pair forms a single entity.

When you write

Both, A and B, are good

you have instructed your reader to take a different parse in which there is a simple subject Both (meaning "both parties") followed by a compound appositive "A and B" renaming the two parties. I expect this would jar readers who expect both and the proximate and to form a conjunction.

deadrat
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  • deadrat presents an excellent response. However, consider Both of my pets, Mr. Cuddles and Sparky, are a lot of work. Adding the prepositional phrase promotes the use of the commas. – Stu W Dec 11 '15 at 00:22
  • @StuW Of course. Both serves as a noun, not part of a conjunction, much as in my suggestion "both parties." You can tell because the word governs a prepositional phrase. Now, "Mr. Cuddles and Sparky" is an appositive for both pets since it renames them (literally). Appositives are usually set off by commas. – deadrat Dec 11 '15 at 01:45