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Why is there a comma after "his" in the headline? Does this mean his AND his wife's experience? Is it correct english, or slang?

"Man discusses his, wife's experience being injured during the Boston marathon bombings."

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/US/video/boston-marathon-explosion-video-attack-victim-hard-mad-18969745

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It's short for "Man discusses his and his wife's experience...." It does not mean "Man discusses his wife's experience."

News headlines are trying to achieve maximum impact with as few words as possible, so they often take liberties with omitting unnecessary words, while preserving the message of the story.

This particular headline might be somewhat awkward English, but there's nothing technically incorrect about it.

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    I see this as a uniquely American style. It's frequently used in headlines there, but I don't recall ever seeing it in any UK newspapers/websites.
    – user4683
    Apr 16, 2013 at 22:40
  • Yes, it is standard practice in the US to use a comma in place of "and" in headlines.
    – Sam Kauffman
    Jan 23, 2019 at 19:36
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This is an offshoot of the usage of the serial comma, but without the conjunction.

"Man discusses his, wife's, son's, and daughter's experience." is typical and grammatically correct. It is expected that the "and" is implicit in the comma, and the list can be shortened to as few as two items.

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  • And is often omitted before wife; his can only be omitted in headlines (and looks strange to me even then).
    – Tim Lymington
    Apr 16, 2013 at 21:02
  • his can't ever be omitted without losing information, in this type of sentence (fragment)
    – Sparr
    Apr 16, 2013 at 22:09
  • ?? His has been omitted before wife's. This is peculiar, but does not reduce information.
    – Tim Lymington
    Apr 16, 2013 at 22:13
  • @TimLymington ahh, you mean the difference in "his, his wife's" and "his, wife's". I thought you meant the still-there "his" could also be removed.
    – Sparr
    Apr 16, 2013 at 23:45
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Other answers explain why this happens. I will add that this is standard practice in the U.S., where a comma in a headline almost always means "and."

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