punctuation - When does a comma change the meaning of a sentence?


Match the two sentences with their meaning:



1) I had a discussion with a friend and a programmer.


2) I had a discussion with a friend, and a programmer.



Meanings:



a) I talked to a friend who is a programmer.


b) I talked to two people, a friend, and a programmer.



Intuitively, I know that 1 => a, and 2 => b. Is there a rule? Does this grammatical construct have a formal name or definition?



Answer



"I had a discussion with a friend and a programmer" does not mean "I talked to a friend who is a programmer". Both 1) and 2) have the same meaning b). However, the use of comma before and is now discouraged by some and flagged by some software.


For the first meaning, you would say "I had a discussion with my friend, a programmer" or better still, "I had a discussion with a programmer friend".


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