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

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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  • Replace the "however," with "but" and you can keep the comma.
    – Marthaª
    Commented Nov 5, 2010 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
    Commented Jun 5, 2011 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
    Commented Mar 3, 2015 at 22:27
  • Why would you use a semi-colon rather than a period?
    – kojow7
    Commented May 5, 2017 at 6:39
  • @kojow7 It is a matter of preferences. You can use either one or the other.
    – avpaderno
    Commented May 5, 2017 at 9:01

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