Having the ability to use punctuation marks with ease, and perhaps without consulting Dr. Google, entails advanced linguistic literacy.
Being able to appropriately employ words that are commonly misused and misinterpreted suggests the same idea.
Since these two areas are two of the most crucial parts in language application, it is essential to discuss them in detail.
Read on to have an in-depth understanding of the comma placement guidelines particularly before a word that breathes ambiguity, the adverb “respectively.”
Is a comma necessary before “respectively”?
In most cases, a pre-comma is essentially placed before “respectively,” especially when it appears at the end of a clause or sentence. It particularly functions as a post-modifying adverb that matches at least two separate lists in a sentence. Two commas may also be positioned adjacently when “respectively” appears mid-sentence. However, for stylistic and readability reasons, commas may be omitted, especially in a sentence with more than two sets of serial information. Lastly, unparalleled lists that do not agree in the number of entities should not be modified with “respectively” at all, and hence should be paraphrased.
The comma before “respectively”
The word “respectively” is often misused due to its close pronunciation and denotation with the adverb “respectfully.”
“Respectively” is a rather advanced adverb commonly used in scholarly articles to show parallel relationships of multiple data lists.
It post-modifies a parallel list of items following a particular order as mentioned in an utterance or a sentence.
A comma usually comes before “respectively” in the written language to signify its semantic and syntactic function.
Let’s discuss the different instances requiring its pre-comma placement in detail below.
When “respectively” appears in the latter part of a parallel list
“Respectively” often appears after a secondary list to modify or refer back to another set of listed elements mentioned earlier in the same sentence.
In particular, the usage of this adverb indicates the meaning that whatever list is included in the earlier part of the sentence matches the order of another set of elements found in the second list.
It should only be used if and when clarifying and matching the relationship of different entities found in the same sentence having more than one set of items.
“Respectively” is placed nearest to the second list, mostly afterward, in the sentence such as in the next example.
The sentence above logically informs the reader that A is mainly affected by X, and B is affected by Y, without having to repeat the same idea in a single sentence.
If the sentence were extended for explanation purposes, it may look like the subsequent example.
The use of “respectively” facilitates the exclusion of any redundant, superfluous, and awkwardly-written sentential patterns.
Thus, it helps in creating concise and logical statements that can be easily deduced by the audience.
When “respectively” appears at the end of the clause followed by a semicolon
The semicolon, also known as the super-comma, possesses the combined function of a period and a comma.
This punctuation mark may tether a closely-related compound sentence minus the coordinating conjunction, or it may link a complex list that already contains commas within.
“Respectively” may be used before the semicolon to match at least two sets of items that may contain further details after the semicolon.
The idea of maintaining parallelism remains constant in this process, such as in the example below.
Again, the listed average ages match the three previously-mentioned gender classifications in the form of “male, female, and LGBTQ.”
Furthermore, the use of “respectively” also implies that the three items under the two sets of lists follow the order used in the serial list.
Put simply, we may think of the sentence above as a form of elaboration of a tabular list containing two separate columns of data.
The first column contains the three gender categories used in the study, while the second column is the list of their corresponding mean ages.
Is it possible to put commas before and after “respectively”?
We can infer from the last section that “respectively” is generally used after a secondary list that matches and modifies an earlier list.
Although this is almost always the case, “respectively” may also be used in the middle of a sentence that would require two adjacent commas.
This may happen when it is inserted parenthetically.
The mid-sentence parenthetical use of “respectively”
A parenthesis is an idea inserted within a sentence to add emphasis or clarity.
Parenthetical elements are offset with two commas when they interrupt the sentence midway.
These commas are essential in disambiguating clunky sentences and avoiding chances of confusion or misinterpretation.
The sentence above implies that the identity management strategy mainly used by the male group in all age levels tested is “social competition”.
Whereas, females demonstrated the tendency to use the concept of “individual mobility” instead, no matter what age they belong to.
Obviously enough, the details in the example above are only indicative of the most prevalent, gender-specific identity management strategy for all ages tested.
Therefore, “respectively” is highly useful in summarizing multiple data results, especially in scientific papers.
And, it further particularizes the order or sequence of elements involved, and hence only added when having this intent.
When is a comma unnecessary before “respectively”?
Although the last two sections have already elaborated the major functions of “respectively” altogether with comma-placement guidelines, adjustments may also be made for stylistic reasons.
This may also be done to increase textual readability as sentences utilizing “respectively” already elicits a non-simplistic format.
Let’s look at this case in detail.
When “respectively” is used before enumerating at least two sets of multiple lists
“Respectively” may be positioned before two serial sets of information corresponding to an initial list in a sentence.
This simply means that the sentence contains three separate lists of items, and the writer is also interested in describing their relationship.
The idea of moving “respectively” before the second list is, again, to improve readability especially in a sentence having multiple data.
The pre-and-post commas are not necessary for this kind of sentence structure.
In the sentence above, we can understand that two different conditions were applied to three different participants.
Ergo, this is similar to a table having three separate columns with varying results that match each condition applied.
The first column contains the participants, the second column illustrates the heart rates at the first condition, and the third column demonstrates the heart rates in the other condition applied.
Commas are nonessential in this particular example as “respectively” already premodifies the two sets of data that refer back to the first list of participants mentioned.
The incorrect use of “respectively”
Now that we have understood how to use and punctuate “respectively,” it is also crucial to know what circumstances entail its incorrect usage.
“Respectively” is inappropriately used either when only one set of serial information is involved, or when only one entity corresponds to all items included.
When only one list is involved
The correct usage of “respectively” prompts the idea of parallelizing the relationship of at least two sets of entity pairs or more.
With that being said, it is therefore incorrect to only have one set of items in a sentence post-modified by “respectively.”
It defeats the function of this particular adverb in the process since “all males” summarizes the complementary detail for the multiple subjects.
The sentence above does not necessitate the use of “respectively” as a modifying adverb, and hence should be removed.
When the second list does not correspond to all items in the first list
The next circumstance that does not essentialize the attachment of “respectively’ is when the second set is not parallel to or does not agree with the initial list.
Again, the idea is that the number of items in the second list should modify the primary list in order.
Thus, the sentence would be incorrect if the number of items in both lists does not match.
The sentence should be reworded in a more specific manner depending on the intention of the writer.
Conclusion
Some words and punctuation marks in English are, in fact, intended to illustrate syntactic, semantic, pragmatic, and even stylistic functions.
“Respectively” is special in such a way that it facilitates space-saving and non-redundancy in the sentence construction.
Therefore, this adverb must be used with the utmost caution, so as not to mislead both technical and non-technical readers in the process.
Hey fellow Linguaholics! It’s me, Marcel. I am the proud owner of linguaholic.com. Languages have always been my passion and I have studied Linguistics, Computational Linguistics and Sinology at the University of Zurich. It is my utmost pleasure to share with all of you guys what I know about languages and linguistics in general.