In the following sentence, should I include a comma after "acquiring"—and if so, why?
German residents who agree to declare that they possess, or have begun the process of acquiring**,** documents...
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2 Answers
Yes, you should. The phrase "or have begun the process of acquiring" is a parenthetical expression. The portion between the two commas can then be omitted without changing the meaning of the remaining sentence.
Have a look at this (found via googling), rule 5.
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1Without the commas, the words in the intended phrase "possess documents" becomes less obviously related, making the construct unwieldy. The version without commas is probably technically correct in the "buffalo buffalo ..." sense (exaggerating for effect) :) , but the version with both commas is much clearer. - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…– LawrenceCommented Nov 21, 2015 at 6:31
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This doesn't strike me as a parenthetical expression. Terms of customs regulations rarely include extraneous asides. There are two classes of German residents -- those in possession of documents and those who don't but who have applied for those documents. The commas have the drawback of separating a compound relative clause and separating the verb from its object. Punctuation can't help the lack of parallelism.– deadratCommented Nov 21, 2015 at 7:41
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@deadrat My answer didn't delve into bureaucracy :) . As just a piece of English text, the main sentence is "German residents who agree to declare that they possess documents ...". Even taking into account bureaucracy, it is plausible for the elided portion to be directly relevant to a document holder, and only concessionally so to applicants. But in any case, referencing applicants in a parenthetical expression doesn't reduce their status any more than a sentence using a boss as the object (instead of subject) diminishes the boss' real authority. ...– LawrenceCommented Nov 21, 2015 at 8:14
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@deadrat ... I agree, though, that keeping "possess documents" together would improve the sentence.– LawrenceCommented Nov 21, 2015 at 8:14
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I don't interpret the sentence the way Lawrence does (in a separate answer to this question). Rather than viewing the sentence as beginning with this (relatively simple) baseline clause:
German residents who agree to declare that they possess documents...
attended by this parenthetical aside:
or have begun the process of acquiring
I see the sentence as beginning with two categories of equally significant and valid subjects, most likely in this pairing:
German residents who agree to declare that they possess documents
and
German residents who have begun the process of acquiring documents
Subordinating one class to the other makes no sense as a matter of categorization. I agree with deadrat's comment that the way to express the equality of the two subjects is to revamp the wording, not simply to add or delete a strategically placed comma.
My preference would be for a wording like this:
German residents who agree to declare that they possess documents or who have begun the process of acquiring documents...
(if that's the meaning you intend to convey) or
German residents who agree to declare that they possess documents or that they have begun the process of acquiring documents...
(if that's the meaning you intend to convey). There are many other possible ways to clarify the meaning and the relationship of the dual subjects of the fragment, of course; and the best way of handling the sentence as a whole depends to a considerable extent on the content of the unseen remainder of the original sentence, among other variables.
answered Nov 21, 2015 at 7:54
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Thank you Sven. Of course your point f view is clear and gramatically correct but I was asking for the particular case and particular stylistic structure, so to say. Doubtless it is possible to use your examples as a substitute but what I looking for was just the comma question and that was clearly explained above. Nonetheless - I do appreciate your help, sire Commented Nov 21, 2015 at 18:50