Clauses, Commas, Semicolons, and Colons (Part 3)

Before you can use commas, semicolons, and colons sensibly, you need to know something about clauses. My discussion is going to begin with the easiest clauses for today.

Restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses
According to the Chicago Manual of Style (15th ed.) (and what I learned in seventh grade in the Days of Yore), these two types of clauses are relative clauses. As you can guess from their names, a restrictive clause restricts something of meaning in the sentence, while a nonrestrictive clause does not. If the clause is restrictive, the sentence as a whole makes no sense without it; if the clause is nonrestrictive, the sentence can be understood without it. Believe it or not, as I was trying to fall asleep last night I was trying to think up examples of each type of clause. It's not even as remotely effective as counting sheep, no matter what anyone thinks. So here goes:

• A man having a limp and using an unusual cane walked a Golden retriever in the dog park.

If the police are asking you if you saw anyone in the dog park, telling them you saw this man would be very important, since omitting mention of the limp and the cane makes the man much more general and less specific. Therefore—and this is the important part—no commas separate the clause "having a limp and using an unusual cane" from the rest of the sentence. As soon as you bracket that clause with commas, you make the man much less specific, and this is obviously a particular man.

[A disclaimer here: Unlike Microsoft Word's menu of styling choices, this blog program doesn't give me a choice to simply indent a paragraph or a list without using either numbers or bullets. I'm choosing throughout the blog to use the bullet, but in general, one would not use a bullet.]

• My dog, a Golden retriever, used to like to escape so she could run wild and free and bark at all the neighbors.

You don't need to know that Molly, the dog in question, was a Golden retriever. It may be interesting to know that she was, but it's not important to know it; therefore, there are commas before and at the end of the clause. It is nonrestrictive because I could leave it out and you'd still understand the sentence.

Use of That and Which with Restrictive and Nonrestrictive Clauses
There is no more confusing a rule in our language than this one. Very few people understand how to use that and which, and most people misuse it. I found when I was copy editing scholarly works that academic writers constantly misused "which." Maybe they thought it sounded more "hi-class" to do so, but that doesn't make it right. This idea may have arisen because British English writers seldom make the distinction and use them interchangeably, but in formal American English, it is customary to make the distinction (per CMS 5.202.)

• My apartment building has three addresses: one for each wing and one for the center, which is hard to see because it's behind a hedge.

Although it's interesting to know that house number for the central part of the building is behind a hedge, it isn't necessary for the essential description, which is that it has three addresses. In this case, you need to know what the clause is modifying: the building or the center of the building. Clearly, it describes only the center part. Further, the clause falls immediately after mention of this central address. That's actually a clue. The clause that begins with a comma and "which" is almost always going to follow the word or part of the sentence it modifies.

• The cape that I wear for much of the winter was made by the Navajo of New Mexico.

There is no mystery here. Yes, the cape was made by the Navajo, but what's important about it? I wear it for much of the winter. I could have changed the wording to

• The cape, which I wear for much of the winter, was made by the Navajo of New Mexico.

But do you then know how long or how often I wear it if I omit the clause from the sentence? No. You don't even know that I own it or that I and the cape have any connection with each other. So the clause is restrictive and can't be handled as if it didn't add meaning to the entirety of the sentence.

Independent and Dependent Clauses
An independent clause is basically a complete sentence. It contains a subject, verb, and an object or predicate. But there are times in writing when several short sentences in a row would be jarring to the eye or to read aloud.

• He wanted a new suit. He went to the corner and caught a taxi. When he arrived at Nordstrom's he got out of the taxi and went inside. He bought a suit and a new shirt to match.

Well, we certainly know what he did, but do we care?

• He wanted a new suit, so he went to the corner and caught a taxi to take him to Nordstrom's. Not only did he buy a suit he liked, but he also found a shirt to match.

First, note that I linked the first two independent clauses with a comma and a conjunction. Then I shortened the third sentence and incorporated it into the first two. Finally I made two clauses out of the last sentence and joined them with a comma and a conjunction and expanded the description a little to make the whole thing sound more natural.

If I decided to get rid of one of the comma-conjunction constructions, I could have said it this way:

• He bought a suit he liked; he also found a shirt that matched it.

The important part about using a semicolon to link two independent clauses is that with a semicolon, in this construction, you never use a conjunction. Even if you are creating a series, you do not use a conjunction.

• He bought a suit he liked; he also found a blue shirt that matched it; the suit and shirt made a complete ensemble for his business lunch on Friday.

It's not the most graceful example, but it's correct. A smoother version might be structured this way:

• He bought a suit he liked, then he found a blue shirt to match. The suit and shirt made a complete ensemble for his business lunch on Friday, when he hoped to discuss the terms of his new position with the company.

In several of the examples I created, I also used dependent clauses, but to clarify, a dependent clause cannot stand alone. It is usually not a complete sentence, and most of the time it needs the rest of the sentence, the independent clause, to give it meaning.

• Mary wanted a suit like her sister's if she could find it.

The same sentence could also be worded like this:

• If she could find one, Mary wanted a suit like her sister's.

You can see in the first example that the dependent clause—if she could find it—is not preceded by a comma, but when the dependent clause introduces the sentence, as in the second example, you must use a comma. The dependent clause achieves its meaning by being integral to the sentence, and without it, the sentence would not only be less informative, we would not know whether Mary had a plan for getting a suit like her sister's.


Colons
Finally, a few words about the colon. Think of a colon as an equals sign (=). What you write on one side should equal what you write on the other. A colon used as I did in the example above fulfills that function. On the one side is "A smoother version might be structured this way:" and then I proceed to give the example of just that thing. The colon is also used to introduce a list, as above.

The colon also stands in for the verb to be, so it must be included in a sentence as you would that verb.

• The contents of the purse were the following: a wallet, business cards, a glasses case, and a pair of leather gloves.

If you omitted "the following" you would in essence be saying:

• The contents of the purse were were a wallet, busines cards, a glasses case, and a pair of leather gloves.

I cannot even count the number of times this construction is misused. When I took writing courses in the communications department at American University, the professors pounded it in our heads that when introducing a list with a colon, we had to say "the following: or as follows:"—no ifs, ands, or buts. So far as I know, this rule hasn't changed over the years, and it still holds true (CMS 6.65). If you read the entries in the Manual that follow the one about using a colon with as follows or the following, you'll find other useful information about this interesting and frequently misused punctuation mark.

A colon may never be used the same way a semicolon is. They do not serve the same purpose, so even though as terms they seem related, they are not.