Does the dedication "To my beloved John" need a comma after "beloved"?
3 Answers
It depends on how you want the dedication to read. There are two main options:
To my beloved, John
Here, beloved is a noun. This says that John is equivalent to your beloved. A fine point to this is that this implies that you have only one "beloved". If you happen to have multiple beloveds (or multiple Johns -- thank you, Kit), you can use beloved as an adjective by saying:
To my beloved John
This second option used beloved as a modifier of John. If you have multiple Johns, this can help differentiate between them. Maybe you have a "beloved John", "tall John", and "carpenter John".
Either option is equally correct; the choice depends on how you feel about John.
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5Just don't say "comma" out loud when reading this to an audience unless he was an English teacher. Commented Jul 22, 2011 at 3:38
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"To my beloved John" also works if you have multiple Johns.– Kit Z. Fox ♦Commented Jul 22, 2011 at 17:53
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@Kit: Good point -- do you mind if I add that to my answer?– user10893Commented Jul 22, 2011 at 18:05
The answer would be clearer with a complete sentence, but it is an introductory clause, and therefore needs a comma after 'John', but not after 'beloved'. Here, 'beloved' is an adjective, not a noun synonomous with 'John'.
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3Dedications aren't complete sentences, though.– user10893Commented Jul 22, 2011 at 3:01
Yeah it depends on the usage. But, frankly, in a book dedication, if you REALLLLY wanted to say John was your beloved, you would be more likely to say To John, my beloved, rather than To my beloved, John. I mean in the subtle ectoplasm of linguistic nuance, in the second instance, John is almost an afterthought. Like, to my beloved. Oh yeah, his name is John. I broke up with Bob. In any case, when beloved is a noun, that is a much bigger deal, like John is your one and only, as opposed to when it's an adjective. I mean we generally have only one beloved (noun) unless you're really a poser, whereas we can have zillions of beloved (insert noun or proper name here). My beloved cat, my beloved laptop, the list goes on and on. But beloved as noun, that's going to be one person. (Anybody else reminded of Toni Morrison's creepy but awesome book?) And just to sum up, if you're torn between two solutions, try to avoid using a comma in a dedication that short. It's not elegant.