Your second citation provides a hint of sound logic with a faulty premise:įor example, in “a tall, green pole,” a comma separates the two adjectives because they are coordinate, or equivalent. For example, we don't want to count those times when "a green tall building" represents an environmentally-friendly skyscraper. The occurrence of that word order is comparatively rare, and might exist primarily due to irrelevant happenstance. A green, tall pole is generally objectionable. To the average native speaker of my acquaintance, it wouldn't. Getting back to the pole, in this case, there is a "pole" that is both tall and green: That is not the case with coordinate adjectives. The one thing that's different about normal expressions is that we use an and before the final list item.
(In speech, it might also indicate a slight pause between the items.) The comma stands in for and, as well as serving to help break up the list items visually. "I ate apples and I ate oranges and I ate pears." This method of replacing the conjunction ( and) with a comma is the same method that's normally used in other expressions: → "Look! It's a tall pole, and it's a green pole." You also observe that it's green.Īs far as you're concerned, the fact that it's tall has equal important to the fact that it's green-they are two separate items of interest. With this type of adjectival use, each adjective modifies the noun independently of anything else.Īt a different time, you could be walking down the street and see a pole. In this case, the items being described are considered to be "green poles", and tall serves to modify that thing. Suddenly, you spot a green pole that happens to be tall: Also, every pole you've seen so far has been short. Say you are standing in a field of poles, and all of them are green.
They are cumulative because each adjective modifies the adjectival phrase that follows. With this kind of adjectival use, one modifies another that follows it. It depends on how the pole is being interpreted and described. In this case, what's being described can either be a tall green pole or it can be a tall, green pole. I was asked to turn my comments under the question into an answer.
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