ریڈرز ڈائجسٹ سے اوکسفرڈ کاما سے متعلق ایک دلچسپ روداد:
The serial comma, also known as the Oxford comma for its endorsement by the Oxford University Press style rulebook, is a comma used just before the coordinating conjunction (“and,” or “or,” for example) when three or more terms are listed. You’ll see it in the first sentence of this story—it’s the comma after “milk”—but you won’t find it in the Maine overtime rule at issue in the Oakhurst Dairy case. According to state law, the following types of activities are among those that don’t qualify for overtime pay:
The canning, processing, preserving,
freezing, drying, marketing, storing,
packing for shipment or distribution of:
(1) Agricultural produce;
(2) Meat and fish products; and
(3) Perishable foods.
There, in the comma-less space between the words “shipment” and “or,” the fate of Kevin O’Connor v. Oakhurst Dairy was argued. Is packing (for shipment or distribution) a single activity that is exempt from overtime pay? Or are packing and distributing two different activities, and both exempt?
If lawmakers had used a serial comma, it would have been clear that distribution was an overtime-exempt activity on its own. But without the comma, wrote US appeals judge David J. Barron, the law is ambiguous as to whether distribution is a separate activity, or whether the whole last clause—”packing for shipment or distribution”—is one activity, meaning only the people who pack the dairy products are exempt. The drivers do distribute, but do not pack, the perishable food.
غور فرمائیے کہ اصل عبارت میں جو اوکسفرڈ کاما کے بغیر ہے، وہ تمام کام درج کیے گئے ہیں جن پر اوور ٹائم نہیں دیا جاتا ، جن میں ڈبوں میں بند کرنا، پراسس کرنا، محفوظ کرنا، ٹھنڈا کرنا، خشک کرنا ، بیچنا، اسٹور کرنا ، بھیجنے یا تقسیم کرنے کے لیے پیک کرنا شامل ہیں۔ اس جملے سے یہ ظاہر نہیں ہورہا کہ تقسیم کرنا بھی کاموں کی اس لسٹ میں شامل ہے۔ اسی جملے میں اگر یا سے پہلے اوکسفرڈ کاما لگادیا جائے تو بھیجنے کے لیے اسٹور کرنا یا پھر تقسیم کرنا بھی اس لسٹ میں شامل ہوجاتے ہیں۔