When two or more adjectives come before a noun, and are not connected by a conjunction, the meaning to be conveyed determines the punctuation:
The punctuation is correct in each of the above sentences; but the two sentences do not mean the same.
Sentence No. 75 says that the grape is a large one in the class of _wild grapes_, confining the comparison to wild grapes.
Sentence No. 75-1 says that the grape is large and is wild. It is large in comparison with all kinds of grapes.
In No. 75 we give the language its natural meaning. In No. 75-1 we use a comma to show that the natural meaning is not the meaning we wish to convey; we disconnect “large” from “wild grape,” as, in Sentence 1-1, we disconnected words standing in an _apparent_ relation which was not the _real_ relation.
Other examples at the end of this chapter will further illustrate the punctuation.
We have already seen that nouns standing together require some mark between them if their apparent relation is not their real relation. This principle was illustrated especially in Sentence 8-1.
The so-called double object furnishes an apparent exception to the principle. The relation, however, between such words is as regular as the relation between an adjective and a noun when the former precedes the latter. Thus the following sentence requires no mark between the nouns constituting a so-called double object:
A similar relation is seen when the first noun in a sentence like the above is followed by an adjective. The relation is regular, and calls for no mark:
In some cases the relation may be more idiomatic than regular, the mark being omitted because there is no real need for its use. The next sentence exhibits such relationship:
When a subject is composed of two or more words, and these words do not readily group themselves, a comma may be helpful to group them as a subject. This failure of words to fall readily into a group is generally due to one of three causes: the subject may be somewhat long and contain marks of punctuation, or it may end with a word that seems itself to sustain grammatical and sense relation with the word or words following it, or it may end with a verb. In either of such cases the comma serves to show the end of the subject; and its use is therefore helpful punctuation: