Discussion Groups / English Usage / November 2006

On 14 Nov 2006, Jeffrey Turner wrote

That one doesn't make any sense as a metaphor to me, I'm afraid.

(I rather like the idea of the metaphor, though:  "They stood there,
with the faintly bemused look of two moose-heads on a wall".)

I see.  You're thinking that "two" and "moose" are adjectives, each
modifying "heads".  But "moose" is not an adjective; it's a noun used
attributively.  And "two" does not modify "heads"; it modifies "moose
heads".  The comma is used when two adjectives modify the same noun,
but not when one modifies the combination of the other adjective and
noun.

"Moose head" is a compound word and "moose" is a noun functioning as
an adjective in this case. Even if you had written "two blue heads",
the order of adjectives precludes the possibility of a comma between
"two" and "blue" simply because you cannot say *"blue two heads" in
that sentence. Color is an attribute of the noun and number is not,
so it has to be "two blue heads" without the comma. You could say
"little, old lady" or "old, little lady", but because of the
idiomatic status of "little old lady" (from Pasadena or elsewhere)
but not of "old little lady", the two versions with the comma would
have to be special cases.

No.

And please don't top-post.

[about "There were two, moose heads on the wall."]

First, as someone else has said, please don't top post. Most
readers of alt.usage.english find it annoying, even though
it seems it may be the most common style in other
environments.

Here you're expected to first quote the remark you want to
reply to, follow it with your comment, and continue to
intersperse quotes and comments throughout your posting.  

I think you'll find that most, if not all, style guides
explain well the use of commas in serial adjectives.  "Two,
blue heads" would normally be wrong, because the intent is
not to convey that there were heads that number two and are
blue, but that there were blue heads that were two in
number.  In other words, "blue heads" is an entity that is
modified by "two"; "heads" is not separately modified by
"two" and "blue".  That is, the writer is not saying "There
are two heads, and, oh yeah, they are blue"; he or she is
saying "There are blue heads, two of them".

In a sense you're right, but the comma between "two" and "blue" would
still be wrong.

You seem to be under the impression that commas are needed when multiple
adjectives come before a noun. True, you may often use commas in this
case, but:
(a) the commas are usually optional, and most typically they are used
only when needed to prevent an ambiguity;
(b) even when the commas are used, the last one (between the last two
adjectives) is often omitted;
(c) as a corollary of (b), a comma is almost never used when there are
only two adjectives; and, in fact, the comma would usually be judged to
be wrong in that case.

As an illustration, consider the sentence:
   "Buy a big, bright, green pleasure machine."
Note the lack of a comma after "green". As I recall it, however, Simon
and Garfunkel used no commas at all in that line, and their commaless
version was perfectly correct English.