comma splice

Two independent clauses separated by a comma instead of a period or semicolon. Though often treated as an error, the comma splice may be used deliberately to create a rhetorical effect of speed, excitement, or confusion.

Examples and Observations:

• "This is the error beloved of composition teachers--easy to identify, just what we need to separate the sheep from the goats. But is it as clear-cut as we tend to think? The distinction between an impermissible comma splice and a legitimate juncture involving a comma is far less precise, for example, than that between a complete sentence and a fragment . . ..
  
  "I want to argue that the concept has no logical basis whatsoever; it's just a useful tool for the implementation of power, a way that English instructors have found of 'establishing and protecting their own prestige' (Taylor, 1973, 761)."
  (Anne L. Klinck, "Coming to Terms: Unravelling the Comma Splice," The English Journal, March 1998)



• "By day the goldfinches dip in yellow light, by night the frogs sing the song that never goes out of favor."
  (E.B. White, "A Report in Spring")



• "A comma is preferable [to a semicolon] when the clauses are very short and alike in form, or when the tone of the sentence is easy and conversational."
  (William Strunk, Jr., and E.B. White, The Elements of Style)



• "And she laughed and stamped the ground a little harder and rose a few inches above the pavement, pulling the others along with her, and before long not one of them was touching the ground, they were taking two steps in place and one step forward without touching the ground, yes, they were rising up over Wenceslaus Square, their ring the very image of a giant wreath taking flight, and I ran off after them down on the ground, I kept looking up at them, and they floated on, lifting first one leg, then the other."
  (Milan Kundera, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting)